From the authorities in international multilingual interpretation and leading experts in machine speech translation technology, KUDO will introduce their AI-powered, real-time Speech Translator (patent pending) at a digital launch event on January 24 at 10 a.m. EST / 4 p.m. CET.  

KUDO AI’s Speedometer technology analyzes speech structure in real-time and breaks it down to mimic a more natural and meaningful pace of speaking that will eventually customize voices, adjust to language variants (such as French Canadian or Brazilian Portuguese), and even control speech fluency.  In its pilot version, KUDO AI will be available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German and new languages will be added on a bi-weekly basis. AI can be accessed 24/7 and at a cost-effective price, further democratizing multilingual communication, and highlighting KUDO’s vision ‘to give everyone the power to understand and be understood in their own language.’

KUDO AI will initially be integrated into the KUDO platform, making it the first end-to-end solution for AI-powered multilingual meetings and events (offering features such as a request-to-speak function, screen and document sharing, polling/voting, handover/relay, multilingual recording and captioning.) Eventually, the solution will be extended to all of KUDO’s partner platforms – from Zoom and Microsoft Teams to ON24 and HopIn. In its ability to translate speech in real-time, KUDO AI also differs from most AI offerings on the market.

KUDO AI is a tool best used for one-to-many webinars, training, and offline videos, while KUDO’s human interpretation service is suited for higher-level communication such as board meetings, customer interviews, summits, and conferences. Like the 12,000+ strong community of KUDO human interpreters, KUDO AI will eventually become available in a wide range of languages.

“Most in this space are still focused on speech-to-text translation with an output of written captions,” said KUDO CEO and global authority on multilingual conferences, Fardad Zabetian. “Few are attempting speech-to-speech translation, and those who do produce it in a consecutive modality (sentence-by-sentence.) At KUDO, we focus on simultaneous or ‘real-time’ interpretation. And now, in addition to the skills of our professional human interpreters, we have an adjunct AI component in our portfolio capable of real-time speech translation in certain use cases.”

“As machine translation technology goes, the approach of KUDO AI is unique,” said KUDO AI’s architect, Dr. Claudio Fantinuoli, KUDO’s Head of Innovation. “The solution integrates state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing systems – such as speech recognition and synthesis – with KUDO innovative language models trained to support real-time, continuous translation of spoken language.”

According to Ewandro Magalhães, KUDO’s Chief Language Officer, “in many use cases, this is no substitute for human interpreters. A skilled linguist can read the audience in ways a machine cannot, derive meaning from intonation, accommodate sarcasm, and make adaptations and corrections as (s)he goes along.” A former chief interpreter at the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union he continues, “language access matters as much as quality, and nuance is important. Whenever the use of trained interpreters would be impractical or unaffordable, that’s where KUDO AI can help. It provides basic language access so more people can transcend language barriers.“

About KUDO: KUDO is the world leader in providing real-time multilingual solutions that enable people to communicate effortlessly in any language⁠—on any platform. Their network of 12,000 professional language interpreters, combined with their ground-breaking Speech Translator, empower organizations of all sizes to collaborate more efficiently, with greater inclusivity, and on an international scale. KUDO Inc. is a New-York based technology start-up founded and managed by language and conferencing industry insiders seeking to create a world in which everyone has the power to understand and be understood in their own language. More info at www.kudoway.com.