Samsung to Add Real-Time Translation to Smartphone Model

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 (L) and Z Flip5 (R) smartphones are displayed at a Samsung Electronics store in Seoul on October 31, 2023. (AFP)
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 (L) and Z Flip5 (R) smartphones are displayed at a Samsung Electronics store in Seoul on October 31, 2023. (AFP)
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Samsung to Add Real-Time Translation to Smartphone Model

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 (L) and Z Flip5 (R) smartphones are displayed at a Samsung Electronics store in Seoul on October 31, 2023. (AFP)
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 (L) and Z Flip5 (R) smartphones are displayed at a Samsung Electronics store in Seoul on October 31, 2023. (AFP)

Samsung Electronics will roll out a real-time call translation service using AI technology next year, the firm told AFP Friday, claiming it would make conversing across languages as easy as "turning on closed captions".

Samsung is among a host of tech companies spending billions in a global artificial intelligence gold rush, which has so far seen chatbots that mimic human speech and software that can generate lifelike images and videos.

The firm, the world's largest smartphone maker, says the new real-time translation feature will be incorporated into its new Galaxy flagship model, which will launch early next year.

It will enable "real-time translation in audio and text as the callers are on the line", a company spokesman told AFP, adding that it has not been determined how many languages will be supported.

The translation will be enabled even if a call partner uses a non-Samsung smartphone, as the new model will use "on-device AI technology".

Speaking to someone in a foreign language using the feature will be "as simple as turning on closed captions" on streaming shows, Samsung said in a press release, with private conversations safely locked in on the phones.

Analysts said it would be a "significant achievement" and sign of real technological progress if Samsung's AI could offer real-time translation of voice calls -- but questioned how it would work.

"The whole process will take at least three to four seconds during which the AI will understand an original content and translate into a foreign language and then verbalizes 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."

AI sprawl

The unveiling comes as the South Korean firm is racing to develop its generative AI model called Samsung Gauss, which comes in three fields of language, code and image, and is currently used among company staff.

The company will incorporate the AI system into its wide range of products in the near future, it said, without specifying timing or the models.

Samsung's language AI will be able to help with everything from composing emails to summarizing documents, while the code AI will help developers to "code easily and quickly", the company said.

Samsung's AI on images will be capable of converting low-resolution images to high-resolution, and also both generating and editing images, it added.

Embedded generative AI "will change how we think about our phones forever", Choi Won-joon, head of Samsung's smartphone R&D sector, said in a statement.

While AI firms have hailed the technology's potential to facilitate major breakthroughs in science, medicine and public services, governments and watchdogs have raised alarms about data privacy and disinformation.

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order last month on regulating AI, the latest in a series of government measures aimed at curtailing the potential dangers of the technology.

Samsung said in a statement on Thursday that GalaxyAI will run on its devices, and "private conversations never leave your phone".



US Defends Law Forcing Sale of TikTok App

This photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on October 19, 2023, shows the logo of the social media video sharing app TikTok reflected in mirrors. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on October 19, 2023, shows the logo of the social media video sharing app TikTok reflected in mirrors. (AFP)
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US Defends Law Forcing Sale of TikTok App

This photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on October 19, 2023, shows the logo of the social media video sharing app TikTok reflected in mirrors. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on October 19, 2023, shows the logo of the social media video sharing app TikTok reflected in mirrors. (AFP)

The Justice Department late Friday filed its response to TikTok's civil suit aimed at derailing a law that would force the app to be sold or face a US ban.

TikTok's suit in a Washington federal court argues that the law violates First Amendment rights of free speech.

The US response counters that the law addresses national security concerns, not speech, and that TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance is not able to claim First Amendment rights here.

The filing details concerns that ByteDance could, and would, comply with Chinese government demands for data about US users or yield to pressure to censor or promote content on the platform, senior justice department officials said in a briefing.

"The goal of this law is to ensure that young people, old people and everyone in between is able to use the platform in a safe manner," a senior justice department official said.

"And to use it in a way confident that their data is not ultimately going back to the Chinese government and what they're watching is not being directed by or censored by the Chinese government."

The response argues that the law's focus on foreign ownership of TikTok takes it out of the realm of the First Amendment.

US intelligence agencies are concerned that China can "weaponize" mobile apps, justice department officials said.

"It's clear that the Chinese government has for years been pursuing large, structured datasets of Americans through all sorts of manner, including malicious cyber activity; including efforts to buy that data from data brokers and others, and including efforts to build sophisticated AI models that can utilize that data," a senior justice department official said.

TikTok has said the demanded divestiture is "simply not possible" -- and not on the timeline required.

The bill signed by President Joe Biden early this year set a mid-January 2025 deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban.

The White House can extend the deadline by 90 days.

"For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people worldwide," said the suit by TikTok and ByteDance.

- TikTok shutdown? -

ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid a ban.

"There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025," the lawsuit said, "silencing (those) who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere."

TikTok first found itself in the crosshairs of former president Donald Trump's administration, which tried unsuccessfully to ban it.

That effort got bogged down in the courts when a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's attempt, saying the reasons for banning the app were likely overstated and that free speech rights were in jeopardy.

The new effort signed by Biden was designed to overcome the same legal headaches, and some experts believe the US Supreme Court could be open to allowing national security considerations to outweigh free speech protection.

"We view the statute as a game changer from the arguments that were in play back in 2020," a senior justice department official said.

There are serious doubts that any buyer could emerge to purchase TikTok even if ByteDance would agree to the request.

Big tech's usual suspects, such as Facebook parent Meta or YouTube's Google, will likely be barred from snapping up TikTok over antitrust concerns, and others could not afford one of the world's most successful apps used by about 170 million people in the United States alone.