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Facebook parent company Meta has built a technology tool designed to directly translate spoken speech from one language to another.
脸书的母公司Meta开发了一种技术工具，旨在直接将语音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，演示了这个人工智能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.
在视频中，Meta首席执行官马克·扎克伯格解释说，该项目需要不同寻常的开发方法。
That is because Hokkien is mainly a spoken language.
这是因为闽南语主要是一种口语。
It does not have a widely used written form.
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.
通常，翻译系统的开发人员会根据目标语言的大量书面文本来训练人工智能模型。
This arms the system with many different language examples and combinations in an effort to produce the most correct results.
这为系统提供了许多不同的语言示例和组合，以努力产生最正确的结果。
In general, AI-powered translation systems have improved greatly in recent years.
总体而言，人工智能翻译系统近年来有了很大的改进。
It is now easier than ever to get translation help online or on devices to make international communication better.
如今比以往任何时候都更容易在网上或通过设备获得翻译帮助，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.
但这类系统存在一个问题，翻译过程存在延迟。
For example, when the system records spoken speech, the words are first converted into text and then translated by an AI system.
例如，当系统记录语音时，语句首先被转换为文本，然后由人工智能系统翻译。
Then, the translated words are converted back into speech so they can be heard.
然后，翻译出来的语句被重新转换为语音，以便人们可以听到它们。
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.
该Meta项目的不同寻常之处在于，开发团队没有在人工智能系统里输入大量闽南语文本。
Hokkien is a version, or dialect, of Chinese.
闽南语是汉语的一种版本，即方言。
It is spoken by millions of people in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian.
在中国东南部的福建省，数百万人说闽南语。
The language is generally passed down through generations of families.
闽南语通常是代代相传的。
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.
Meta指出，闽南语是现存的近3500种语言中的一种，这3500种语言主要是口语，并没有广泛使用的书写系统。
The company says its AI developers are aiming to create speech-to-speech translation tools that would cover most of the world’s languages.
该公司表示，其人工智能开发人员的目标是创建覆盖世界上大多数语言的语音转语音翻译工具。
Earlier this year, Meta announced two new AI projects.
今年早些时候，Meta宣布了两个新的人工智能项目。
One is called No Language Left Behind.
一个叫“No Language Left Behind（不落下任何语言）”。
Zuckerberg said in a video that effort is designed to create translation systems to cover “hundreds” of world languages.
扎克伯格在一段视频中表示，这个项目旨在创建涵盖“数百种”世界语言的翻译系统。
The other is called the Universal Speech Translator.
另一个项目叫做“通用语音翻译器”。
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.
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“涵盖所有语言的语音转语音翻译”的系统。
Meta’s latest system involving Hokkien was developed as part of its Universal Speech Translator project.
Meta最新的涉及闽南语的系统是作为其通用语音翻译器项目的一部分开发的。
“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：“用任何语言与任何人交流的能力——这是人们梦寐以求的超能力，而人工智能将在我们有生之年实现这一梦想。”
Meta said it used several different methods to create the new system to translate to and from Hokkien and English.
Meta表示，它使用了几种不同的方法来创建这个新的系统，以便在闽南语和英语之间进行翻译。
The team trained its AI models on written text examples from another version of Chinese, Mandarin, which is similar to Hokkien.
该团队使用类似于闽南语的普通话的书面文本示例对其人工智能模型进行了培训。
In addition, Meta developers used an encoding tool designed to compare spoken Hokkien to similar English text.
此外，Meta开发人员使用了一种编码工具，用来比较闽南语口语与类似的英语文本。
The team also worked closely with Hokkien speakers to make sure the results were correct.
该团队还与说闽南语的人密切合作，以确保结果的正确性。
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，它的目标是在未来使用与闽南语翻译系统相同的方法为更多语言创建语音转语音翻译系统。
The company said, however, that its Hokkien translation model “is still a work in progress.”
不过，该公司表示，其闽南语翻译模式“仍在进行中”。
It noted that the system is currently only able to translate one full sentence at a time.
它指出，该系统目前一次只能翻译一个完整的句子。
I’m Bryan Lynn.
布莱恩·林恩为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
