Slator - Language Industry News

The rising pressure to use AI AI is no longer a future concept. It’s on the table in every leadership meeting I’m part of, and it’s becoming a top-down priority across industries. More CEOs, including myself, are asking their teams to integrate AI into their workflows. The expectation is clear: every team should be using AI to improve efficiency and performance. The pressure to operate with an AI-first mentality is real, but many teams are struggling to understand what that actually means in practice. The goals (faster output, lower costs, better quality) are valid. But when teams jump in without the right strategy, the results can miss the mark. I’ve seen companies spend heavily, lose time chasing fixes, or end up with translations that need so much cleanup, it would have been faster to use conventional human or machine translation. So let’s reset the conversation. Being AI-first doesn’t mean using every tool you can find or building bespoke AI applications. It means knowing when and ...

Smartcat's Series C Funding, YouTube Dubs Launch, Viva Translate Closes Down Slator- Language Industry Intelligence Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where they give their impressions from  SlatorCon Silicon Valley  and touch upon the findings from the 2024 ALC Industry Survey. In a significant funding update, Esther reports that  Smartcat raised USD 43m  in a Series C round, bringing their total funding to USD 70m. This funding will support product innovation in AI translation and multilingual content generation. Florian talks about  YouTube’s potential launch of AI dubbing , a feature in testing that aims to generate translated audio tracks for videos, significantly enhancing content accessibility and engagement. In Esther’s M&A corner, Cloudbreak, now rebranded as Equiti,  acquired its competitor Voyce  and brought on  a new private equity partner , Heritage Group. Meanwhile, EasyTranslate  acquired Wor...

Humanless LSP as a Fun Weekend Project Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, giving a recap of SlatorCon London and exploring some use cases from the Slator Pro Guide: Language AI for Consumers . Florian talks about Andrew Ng’s recent project on agentic machine translation , which involves using large language models ( LLMs ) to create a virtual language service provider (LSP). The duo touched on Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference, where Apple Watch is set to get a translation widget and also recently announced a new translation API. Florian shares RWS’s half-year financial results , where despite declines in revenue, the company’s stock rose by 20%, likely due to investor perception of AI-enabled services and new product offerings like Evolve and HAI gaining traction. Esther talks about DeepL’s USD 300m funding round , which valued the company at USD 2bn, a testament to the growing interest in AI models. She also covers Unbabel’s launch of To...