Facebook Develops New Translation System Powered By Artificial Intelligence

<center>A 3D plastic representation of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Facebook announced deals with nine publishers -- including NBC News, the New York Times and BuzzFeed -- to deliver select articles "instantly" on mobile apps. A next logical step for the social giant would be to extend the program to Internet-video providers. Under the Instant Articles program, Facebook caches content on its servers so that it loads up to 10 times faster than regular article posts, which take an average of eight seconds to access. The other launch partners in the program are National Geographic, The Atlantic, the U.K.'s Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic - RTX1CSWP</center>

Facebook says its researchers have found a new way to use artificial intelligence to translate material on its social network faster and more accurately.

This could mean Facebook users eventually seeing everything translated immediately into their preferred language, not just post but videos too. Facebook already translates posts in more than 45 languages, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg says there is still “a lot more to do.”

For now, Facebook has made the research and its methods publicly available so developers and others can use it to build translation and other language tools. Beyond language translation, the technology can be used for chatbots, for example, or other language-based tasks.

The method uses something called a convolutional neural network, a technology that’s already used for image processing and other types of machine learning.[related-posts]

source: Associated Press (AP)