Google’s headfirst drive to ram artificial intelligence capabilities into every product under its umbrella continues. The newest casualty recipient of an AI upgrade is the company’s Translate platform, which has always been handy for misinterpreting what Hideo Kojima is saying on Twitter.
Now it’ll be handy for teaching you a new language, provided that language is Spanish, French, or (if you’re already Spanish or French) English. Those are the initial supported languages, but with Translate capable of understanding almost 250 different tongues, others will be added later.
Translating for Google
The second wave of languages coming to Google Translate’s customised education function will probably be drawn from the batch of 70 that the service can translate in real-time. Afrikaans and Zulu may appear on the real-time translation list, but it’ll probably be a while before Gemini can give you lessons in either.
Google says that its new Practice mode (users simply select ‘practice’ in the Translate app to begin) was “[d]eveloped with learning experts based on the latest studies in language acquisition,” meaning all the important work was done by humans. Translate generates lessons based on user-selected skill levels and goals based on those educational principles.
This takes the form of spoken conversations where the Gemini AI does all the talking, where users pick out the words they recognise, or spoken conversations where Gemini does all of the listening, “with helpful hints available when you need them.”
Gemini’s involvement in Translate is rolling out in beta now, for both the Android and iOS versions of the Translate app. If you’ve a burning desire to learn English, Spanish, or French and an irrational fear of owls (strigiformophobia), this could be for you.
