(Seoul) South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics will deploy a real-time translation tool based on artificial intelligence for a new phone in 2024, a representative of the group told AFP on Friday.
This feature will be available on the next Samsung Galaxy, the company’s flagship model, to be released in early 2024, according to the same source.
It will allow “real-time translation of audio and text during a communication,” explained the same spokesperson, without saying how many languages would be supported.
Thanks to “integrated artificial intelligence” in the future device, the tool will be active even if one of the participants does not use a Samsung model.
Speaking to someone in another language using AI will be “as simple as activating the subtitles” of a series, Samsung assured in a press release, specifying that private conversations would be kept safe in smart phones.
This would be an “important achievement”, according to experts who, however, question the functioning of such a tool.
“The process will take at least three to four seconds during which the AI will understand the original content, translate it into another language and verbalize it to the listener,” explains Lee Won-kang, head of South Korean operations at XL8, a start-up specializing in AI translation.
According to him, it remains to be seen, among other things, whether the translated content will be spoken by the original voice or that of the AI.
This announcement comes alongside the group’s development of its own generative AI model called Samsung Gauss, a tool capable of producing language, code and images. It is currently used within the company.
Samsung has indicated that this model will be integrated into a wide range of its products in the near future, without specifying which ones or giving an exact date.
In particular, it should help send emails, classify documents, or even improve the resolution of images.
Embedded generative AI “will forever change the way we design our phones,” R chief Choi Won-joon said in a statement.
The South Korean giant is the largest producer of phones in the world: it represented a fifth of total sales on the market between July and September, ahead of Apple (16%), according to specialist Counterpoint.
