DeepL, known for text translation, now wants to translate your words

DeepL, a translation company best known for its audio tools, released speech-to-speech software today that covers events like meetings, mobile and online chats, and group discussions for front-line workers using standard software. The company is also releasing an API that allows third-party developers and businesses to build on top of DeepL’s technology for custom use cases, such as call centers.

“After years of translating words, words were a natural option for us,” DeepL CEO Jarek Kutylowski told TechCrunch in an interview. “We’ve come a long way when it comes to text and text translation. But we thought there was nothing better than real-time text translation.”

Kutylowski said that the difficulty in creating a real-time translation environment is finding the balance between reducing latency – the delay between a person speaking and the translated text playing – and maintaining accurate results.

DeepL is rolling out additions to platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Groups, where listeners can hear real-time translations while others speak in their own languages ​​or follow real-time translations on screen. The app is currently in early access, and the company is taking orders institutions to join the waiting list. The company also has mobile and online consulting products that can be done in person or remotely.

DeepL also allows users to participate in group discussions in settings such as training sessions or workshops, allowing participants to join via QR code.

DeepL said its speech and language technology can also learn and adapt based on traditional words, such as words related to industries and names of companies and people.

Kutylowski said AI is reimagining what customer service will look like in the coming years. He said the translation division helps companies provide services in languages ​​where qualified workers are scarce and expensive to hire.

The company said it controls the number of words and phrases. However, the current system converts text to text, uses translation, and then converts the text to text. DeepL believes that since it has worked in the translation industry for many years, it has limitations in translation quality. Beyond that, the company wants to create an end-to-end voice translation model that skips the text.

DeepL faces competition from a number of highly-funded startups operating on the edge of the space. Sanas, which last year raised $65 million from Quadrille Capital and Teleperformance, uses AI to change the pronunciation of a speaker in real time – a tool used mainly for call center agents.

Dubai-based Camb.AI focuses on speech synthesis and translation for media and entertainment companies Amazon Web Services, helping them dub and embed local videos on the scale.

Palabra, with the help of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, is developing a real-time text translation engine designed to preserve meaning and context. the speaker’s original voiceputting it in direct competition with what DeepL is building now.