Every day, millions of players around the world converge on Roblox to play and create games. With more than 70 million daily active users, it is truly a global community. However, language barriers have always been a challenge for players trying to connect with others who speak different languages. But Roblox recently took a groundbreaking step to break down these barriers by introducing an AI-enabled real-time translation system for its Metaverse.
Roblox AI Technology
In a blog postChief Technology Officer Daniel Sturman explained how the platform developed an internal large language model (LLM) specifically for this purpose. This “unified translation model” features an impressive base latency of 100 milliseconds, allowing for near-instantaneous translation of text messages.
Moreover, this system can translate between 16 languages, including English, Chinese, French and German. This advancement builds on Roblox’s existing use of AI to translate static content in the game and takes it a step further by extending it to real-time chat.
Challenges and solutions
Developing this AI-powered translation system was a challenging feat. Sturman highlighted two major obstacles the team faced. The first challenge was creating a system that could translate between any pair of the sixteen supported languages, and not just simple one-to-one translations. The second challenge was the speed of the translation, which had to be done fast enough to allow for real-time conversations.
To address these challenges, the Roblox team developed a context-aware model that can recognize specific terminology, slang, and abbreviations used on the platform. This means that players who speak different languages can communicate without any language restrictions. Additionally, Roblox used back-translation techniques for less common language pairs with limited high-quality data.
Using this method, the system translates the content back to the source language and compares it for accuracy. This data is then combined with monitored data to improve the model’s learning process.
The introduction of this AI-powered real-time translation system aims to create a more inclusive and connected gaming community on Roblox. It allows players around the world to communicate and play together without language barriers.
Overcoming language barriers is the key to connecting everyone in the Metaverse. This means that translation must be a major focus. The metaverse will face a wide range of communication needs, from informal conversations to formal negotiations involving companies and governments.
Sturman concluded by saying, “We are already exploring exciting new frontiers, including automatic voice chat translations. Imagine if a French speaker on Roblox could voice chat with someone who only spoke Russian. Both could talk to each other and understand each other, down to the tone, rhythm and emotion of their voices, in their own language and with low latency. Even though this may sound like science fiction today, and it will take some time to realize it, we will continue to promote translation.
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