Meta has developed a new speech-to-text model that can translate almost 100 languages, according to The Verge. The announcement reflects Meta’s recent attempts to expand their AI sector. (RELATED: Meta’s Weird New Speech AI | Mind Matters)

Emilia David writes,

SeamlessM4T, which stands for Massively Multilingual and Multimodal Machine Translation, that the company said can translate speech-to-text and text-to-text for nearly 100 languages. For speech-to-speech and text-to-speech actions, it recognizes 100 input languages and converts them into 35 output languages.

-Emilia David, Meta releases multilingual speech translation model – The Verge

Meta’s ultimate goal is to make a “universal translator.” The multi-billion dollar technology company compared the new model to the “Babel Fish” in the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Babel refers to the biblical story in Genesis in which God stops the construction of a human-glorifying tower by making the builders speak in different languages. In their confusion and inability to communicate, the building stops. The Babel Fish “is a fish you can place in your ear to instantly understand any language.” (RELATED: Sorry Mark, but the Metaverse Failed | Mind Matters)

SeamlessM4T is still under development and has been released to other researchers, according to The Verge.