Meta is building an AI Babelfish to translate every language

Meta wants you to understand anyone, from anywhere, no matter which language they speak. To achieve this the company is looking to build a universal, instantaneous speech translator, capable of translating any language to any other language -- including languages that are primarily spoken. Mark Zuckerberg announced this goal during an AI-focused event Wednesday, describing it as a key step toward a world-encompassing metaverse. "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 in our lifetimes." Meta's ambitious universal translation project is part of a broader push to build out the company's translation capabilities for the metaverse.