What if you could speak different languages in a team meeting and impress everyone! Yes, you can do so with Microsoft’s new feature. Microsoft Teams will soon roll out a feature that can clone users’ voices. These voices could be of different languages and could be used to translate conversations in real time. These voices could be used later for translating any call record.
On November 19, during the annual Microsoft Ignite conference, Microsoft announced that it will bring a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered Interpreter tool to Microsoft Teams. Here’s a detailed look at how it can change your meeting experience.
Microsoft brings an ‘Interpreter tool’
In an official blog, Microsoft explained that Interpreter in Teams can provide you with real-time speech-to-speech translation during meetings. Also you can opt to have it simulate your speaking voice for a more customized and engaging experience. The tech giant also claims that this tool can help in making remote work and digital socialization more accessible to a wider array of non-English speakers. The tool also uses personalized high-tech voice cloning for people with atypical speech.
So, how does this tool exactly work? For example, you have a meeting with someone who only speaks Spanish and you speak only English. As you are not so familiar with Spanish, you might find it hard to understand them . Here, the ‘Interpreter tool,’ comes to rescue. The tool will translate the Spanish language into English in real time during the meeting.
Furthermore, as of now ‘Interpreter tool,’ will be available to Microsoft365 subscribers. Initially the tool will include languages like English, Mandarin Chinese, German, French, Japanese, Italian,Korean, Portuguese,and Spanish.
AI cloning your voice: A boon or bane
Microsoft teams have become an important part of our daily life. From attending educational sessions to working with remote teams, the platform is used for various modes of communication. We have often seen that sometimes, we face language barriers. It becomes difficult to understand foreign / hyperlocal languages without a subtitle/translation. So, the new feature could help you out. However, the tool might not be as fluent as a human translator.
On the other hand, some argue that the tool can face AI hallucinations. A recent study highlighted that the AI-powered transcription tool Whisper, faced AI hallucinations. The tool is alleged to be ‘finding new phrases/terms’ for the medical field. These terms didn’t even exist in real life and had created a concern among users. Another concern could be the execution of ‘voice cloning’ for fraudulent purposes. The tool’s ability to ‘clone human voice,’ might be misused to scam someone.
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