Samsung to launch real-time call translation service using AI next year

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker, announced Friday that it will introduce a new feature that will allow users to translate calls in real time using AI technology, AFP reported. The company said the new feature will make cross-language conversations as easy as “turning on closed captions” on streaming shows.

The new real-time translation feature will be available on its new Galaxy flagship model, which will launch early next year, the company said. It will enable users to “translate audio and text in real time as the callers are on the line”, a company spokesman told AFP, adding that the number of languages supported has not been decided yet.

The feature will work even if the other person on the call uses a different smartphone brand, as the new model will use “on-device AI technology”, the company said. The feature will ensure the privacy of the conversations, as they will be encrypted on the phones.

Analysts said that if Samsung’s AI can offer real-time translation of voice calls, it would be a “significant achievement” and a sign of real technological progress, but they also raised some questions about how it would work.

“The whole process will take at least three to four seconds, during which the AI will understand the original content, translate it into a foreign language, and then verbalise it to a listener,” said Lee Won-kang, head of AI-based translation startup XL8’s South Korea operation.

“We will have to actually see and use it ourselves to see how good it is, including whether translated contents will be spoken in AI voice or original voice.