Meta develops artificial intelligence model for direct speech-to-speech translation for up to 101 languages

Humans may be edging closer to a digital version of the Babel fish — a fictional creature in Douglas Adams’s science fiction creation The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — that enables instant translation when placed in the ear.

Scientists at the US technology company Meta have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can facilitate direct speech-to-speech translation for up to 101 languages, including several spoken in India.