2022年10月27日 VOA慢速英語(yǔ)：Meta 展示 AI 驅(qū)動(dòng)的語(yǔ)音到語(yǔ)音翻譯系統(tǒng)

 

Facebook parent company Meta has built a technology tool designed to directly translate spoken speech from one language to another.
Facebook 母公司 Meta 開(kāi)發(fā)了一種技術(shù)工具，旨在將口語(yǔ)直接從一種語(yǔ)言翻譯成另一種語(yǔ)言。
 
Meta recently released a video that demonstrated how the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool can translate between English and the Hokkien language.
Meta 最近發(fā)布了一段視頻，展示了人工智能(AI) 驅(qū)動(dòng)的工具如何在英語(yǔ)和閩南語(yǔ)之間進(jìn)行翻譯。
 
In the video, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg explained that the project required different, unusual development methods. That is because Hokkien is mainly a spoken language. It does not have a widely used written form.
在視頻中，Meta 負(fù)責(zé)人馬克扎克伯格解釋說(shuō)，該項(xiàng)目需要不同的、不尋常的開(kāi)發(fā)方法。那是因?yàn)楦＝ㄔ捴饕且环N口語(yǔ)。它沒(méi)有廣泛使用的書(shū)面形式。
 
Generally, developers of translation systems train AI models on very large amounts of written text in the target languages. This arms the system with many different language examples and combinations in an effort to produce the most correct results.
通常，翻譯系統(tǒng)的開(kāi)發(fā)人員會(huì)在大量目標(biāo)語(yǔ)言的書(shū)面文本上訓(xùn)練 AI 模型。這為系統(tǒng)提供了許多不同的語(yǔ)言示例和組合，以產(chǎn)生最正確的結(jié)果。
 
In general, AI-powered translation systems have improved greatly in recent years. It is now easier than ever to get translation help online or on devices to make international communication better.
總的來(lái)說(shuō)，人工智能驅(qū)動(dòng)的翻譯系統(tǒng)近年來(lái)有了很大的改進(jìn)?，F(xiàn)在比以往任何時(shí)候都更容易在線或在設(shè)備上獲得翻譯幫助，以更好地進(jìn)行國(guó)際交流。
 
But one problem with such systems is that there are delays linked to the translation process. For example, when the system records spoken speech, the words are first converted into text and then translated by an AI system. Then, the translated words are converted back into speech so they can be heard.
但此類系統(tǒng)的一個(gè)問(wèn)題是翻譯過(guò)程存在延遲。例如，當(dāng)系統(tǒng)記錄口語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音時(shí)，首先將單詞轉(zhuǎn)換為文本，然后由 AI 系統(tǒng)進(jìn)行翻譯。然后，翻譯的單詞被轉(zhuǎn)換回語(yǔ)音，以便可以聽(tīng)到。
 
The unusual part of the Meta project is that the development team did not have large amounts of Hokkien language text to feed into the AI system.
Meta 項(xiàng)目的不同尋常之處在于，開(kāi)發(fā)團(tuán)隊(duì)沒(méi)有大量的閩南語(yǔ)文本來(lái)輸入人工智能系統(tǒng)。
 
Hokkien is a version, or dialect, of Chinese. It is spoken by millions of people in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. It is also spoken by many people in Taiwan and some communities in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The language is generally passed down through generations of families.
福建話是漢語(yǔ)的一個(gè)版本或方言。中國(guó)東南部的福建省有數(shù)百萬(wàn)人使用這種語(yǔ)言。臺(tái)灣的許多人以及馬來(lái)西亞、新加坡和菲律賓的一些社區(qū)也使用這種語(yǔ)言。這種語(yǔ)言通常是世代相傳的。
 
Meta notes that Hokkien is one of nearly 3,500 living languages that are mainly spoken and do not have a widely used writing system. The company says its AI developers are aiming to create speech-to-speech translation tools that would cover most of the world's languages.
Meta 指出，福建話是近 3,500 種主要使用且沒(méi)有廣泛使用的書(shū)寫系統(tǒng)的現(xiàn)存語(yǔ)言之一。該公司表示，其人工智能開(kāi)發(fā)人員的目標(biāo)是創(chuàng)建涵蓋世界上大多數(shù)語(yǔ)言的語(yǔ)音到語(yǔ)音翻譯工具。
 
Earlier this year, Meta announced two new AI projects. One is called No Language Left Behind. Zuckerberg said in a video that effort is designed to create translation systems to cover "hundreds" of world languages.
今年早些時(shí)候，Meta 宣布了兩個(gè)新的人工智能項(xiàng)目。一種叫做“不忘語(yǔ)言”。扎克伯格在一段視頻中表示，努力旨在創(chuàng)建涵蓋“數(shù)百種”世界語(yǔ)言的翻譯系統(tǒng)。
 
The other is called the Universal Speech Translator. The goal of that project is to build a system that can produce "speech-to-speech translation across all languages," the company said in a statement. Meta's latest system involving Hokkien was developed as part of its Universal Speech Translator project.
另一種稱為通用語(yǔ)音翻譯器。該公司在一份聲明中表示，該項(xiàng)目的目標(biāo)是建立一個(gè)能夠產(chǎn)生“所有語(yǔ)言的語(yǔ)音到語(yǔ)音翻譯”的系統(tǒng)。Meta 涉及福建話的最新系統(tǒng)是作為其通用語(yǔ)音翻譯項(xiàng)目的一部分而開(kāi)發(fā)的。
 
"The ability to communicate with anyone in any language — that's a superpower people have dreamed of forever, and AI is going to deliver that within our lifetimes," Zuckerberg said.
扎克伯格說(shuō)：“能夠以任何語(yǔ)言與任何人交流——這是人們夢(mèng)寐以求的超級(jí)大國(guó)，人工智能將在我們有生之年實(shí)現(xiàn)這一點(diǎn)。”
 
Meta said it used several different methods to create the new system to translate to and from Hokkien and English. The team trained its AI models on written text examples from another version of Chinese, Mandarin, which is similar to Hokkien.
Meta 表示，它使用了幾種不同的方法來(lái)創(chuàng)建新的系統(tǒng)來(lái)翻譯閩南語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)。該團(tuán)隊(duì)在來(lái)自另一個(gè)版本的中文普通話（類似于福建話）的書(shū)面文本示例上訓(xùn)練其 AI 模型。
 
In addition, Meta developers used an encoding tool designed to compare spoken Hokkien to similar English text. The team also worked closely with Hokkien speakers to make sure the results were correct.
此外，Meta 開(kāi)發(fā)人員使用了一種編碼工具，旨在將口語(yǔ)福建話與類似的英文文本進(jìn)行比較。該團(tuán)隊(duì)還與講閩南語(yǔ)的人密切合作，以確保結(jié)果正確。
 
Meta said it aims to use the same methods used for Hokkien to create speech-to-speech translation systems for many more languages in the future.
Meta 表示，它的目標(biāo)是使用與福建話相同的方法，在未來(lái)為更多語(yǔ)言創(chuàng)建語(yǔ)音到語(yǔ)音翻譯系統(tǒng)。
 
The company said, however, that its Hokkien translation model "is still a work in progress." It noted that the system is currently only able to translate one full sentence at a time.
然而，該公司表示，其閩南語(yǔ)翻譯模式“仍在進(jìn)行中”。它指出，該系統(tǒng)目前一次只能翻譯一個(gè)完整的句子。