2022年10月27日 VOA慢速英语：Meta 展示 AI 驱动的语音到语音翻译系统

 

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 开发了一种技术工具，旨在将口语直接从一种语言翻译成另一种语言。
 
Meta recently released a video that demonstrated how the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool can translate between English and the Hokkien language.
Meta 最近发布了一段视频，展示了人工智能(AI) 驱动的工具如何在英语和闽南语之间进行翻译。
 
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.
在视频中，Meta 负责人马克扎克伯格解释说，该项目需要不同的、不寻常的开发方法。那是因为福建话主要是一种口语。它没有广泛使用的书面形式。
 
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，翻译系统的开发人员会在大量目标语言的书面文本上训练 AI 模型。这为系统提供了许多不同的语言示例和组合，以产生最正确的结果。
 
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.
总的来说，人工智能驱动的翻译系统近年来有了很大的改进。现在比以往任何时候都更容易在线或在设备上获得翻译帮助，以更好地进行国际交流。
 
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.
但此类系统的一个问题是翻译过程存在延迟。例如，当系统记录口语语音时，首先将单词转换为文本，然后由 AI 系统进行翻译。然后，翻译的单词被转换回语音，以便可以听到。
 
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 项目的不同寻常之处在于，开发团队没有大量的闽南语文本来输入人工智能系统。
 
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.
福建话是汉语的一个版本或方言。中国东南部的福建省有数百万人使用这种语言。台湾的许多人以及马来西亚、新加坡和菲律宾的一些社区也使用这种语言。这种语言通常是世代相传的。
 
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，福建话是近 3,500 种主要使用且没有广泛使用的书写系统的现存语言之一。该公司表示，其人工智能开发人员的目标是创建涵盖世界上大多数语言的语音到语音翻译工具。
 
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.
今年早些时候，Meta 宣布了两个新的人工智能项目。一种叫做“不忘语言”。扎克伯格在一段视频中表示，努力旨在创建涵盖“数百种”世界语言的翻译系统。
 
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.
另一种称为通用语音翻译器。该公司在一份声明中表示，该项目的目标是建立一个能够产生“所有语言的语音到语音翻译”的系统。Meta 涉及福建话的最新系统是作为其通用语音翻译项目的一部分而开发的。
 
"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.
扎克伯格说：“能够以任何语言与任何人交流——这是人们梦寐以求的超级大国，人工智能将在我们有生之年实现这一点。”
 
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，它使用了几种不同的方法来创建新的系统来翻译闽南语和英语。该团队在来自另一个版本的中文普通话（类似于福建话）的书面文本示例上训练其 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 开发人员使用了一种编码工具，旨在将口语福建话与类似的英文文本进行比较。该团队还与讲闽南语的人密切合作，以确保结果正确。
 
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，它的目标是使用与福建话相同的方法，在未来为更多语言创建语音到语音翻译系统。
 
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，该公司表示，其闽南语翻译模式“仍在进行中”。它指出，该系统目前一次只能翻译一个完整的句子。