Seoul (AFP) – South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics will use an artificial intelligence-based real-time translation tool for a new smartphone in 2024, a company official told AFP on Friday.
Published on: October 11, 2023 – 11:15
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This feature, according to the same source, will be available on the next Samsung Galaxy, the company’s flagship model, which is scheduled to launch in early 2024.
It will enable “real-time translation of audio and text during a communication,” the same spokesperson explained, without saying how many languages would be supported.
Thanks to the “integrated artificial intelligence” in the future device, the tool will be active even if one of the participants does not use a Samsung model.
Speaking to someone in another language using AI is “as easy as turning on the subtitles” of a series, Samsung assured in a press release, noting that private conversations on smartphones are kept safe.
This would be an “important achievement,” say experts, but they question the functionality of such a tool.
“The process takes at least three to four seconds, during which the AI understands the original content, translates it into another language and verbalizes it to the listener,” explains Lee Won-kang, head of South Korean operations at XL8. a start-up specializing in AI translation.
According to him, it remains to be seen, among other things, whether the translated content is spoken by the original voice or by the AI.
This announcement comes alongside the group’s development of its own generative AI model called Samsung Gauss, a tool that can generate speech, code and images. It is currently used internally within the company.
Samsung has hinted that this model will be integrated into a wide range of its products in the near future, although without specifying which ones they will be or giving an exact date.
It is intended to help in particular with sending emails, classifying documents or improving the resolution of images.
Integrated generative AI “will forever change the way we design our phones,” Choi Won-joon, head of research and development at Samsung’s smartphone division, said in a statement.
The South Korean giant is the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world: according to specialist Counterpoint, it accounted for a fifth of total sales on the market between July and September, ahead of Apple (16%).
© 2023 AFP