Translation services company Pocketalk is entering a new era in language technology by debuting a two-way Haitian Creole model that translates the language in both text and voice.
The technical progress to create a language model for a complex, nuanced language didn't start with an algorithm; rather, a human connection to a native speaker.
THE NEED FOR A HUMAN EXPERT
Pocketalk’s original product is a handheld device, similar in size to a smartphone, that provides real-time translation to many spoken languages. Yet Doug Bieter, the company’s head of global partnerships, admitted it can be challenging to access the data tech needs to provide translation for some rare or more nuanced languages.
For years, Pocketalk received requests from health-care systems, governments and education customers to provide translation for Haitian Creole.
To create a solution, the company had to technically “build the language from the ground up,” requiring a human expert to make that possible.
Pocketalk recruited Haitian Creole language expert and former translator Kerby Magophy to do the job. Magophy worked with the company for months, recording his voice so that the language model could learn pronunciation, grammar and sentence structure. After that initial step, he proofread and edited the output results to refine sentences that he says “really work,” for time-sensitive situations.
See a demo of the tech in action in the video below.
BEYOND THE STIGMA OF AI TRANSLATION
Magophy acknowledged that many translators aren’t eager to partner with tech companies working on AI translation, as they're concerned about the implications of potentially being replaced and resulting in lower quality translation services. Yet, he felt pulled to work with the tech company as part of a personal mission to better serve Haitian Creole speakers.
Recalling one instance where he was providing translation services at a hospital for a new mother who had just given birth to a baby, he remembered having to stay at the hospital for hours so that he was on hand to translate whenever the doctor might have stopped in the room.
“As humans, we have limits, especially physical limits, and technology is very useful in those situations,” he said, while also asserting that there is still a need for human translation in “really critical situations.”
“I would say that technology or AI will never be able to replace people, this is almost impossible,” he said. “But, sometimes we cannot be there at all times. And if that person could have an alternative, that would be good.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
Pocketalk now provides voice and image translation for at least 92 languages, with plans to continue to grow that number. Bieter explained that the company learned a lot from building the Haitian Creole model, and that experience would be beneficial for more languages in the future.
“Our message in the company is 'Welcome to the conversation,' and that can't be limited to a few languages. That's got to be as broad and vast as it can possibly be,” said Bieter.
The work isn’t always quick — Bieter acknowledged that building the Haitian Creole model took more than six months to complete.
“It’s not about speed, it's about quality, especially in this language,” Bieter said. “We really had to spend the time to commit to doing it right, and that was a pretty broad part of our engineering, product and technology team involved with Kerby to pull this off.”
Additionally, the company is expanding their reach beyond pocket-sized translation devices, adapting to provide opportunities to move their software onto other platforms.
“As we've grown bigger and bigger, there's been other partners that want to bring our experience, because of the security, because of the accountability, through our dashboard. So we've really built out the enterprise solution,” said Bieter.
Meanwhile, Magophy remains passionate about the capabilities that AI-supported translation provides, believing this technology holds the power to bridge communities and mend historical gaps.
As an immigrant, he feels a vital history of partnership between Haiti and the U.S. has been forgotten by many Americans. He pointed to Haiti’s role in the Battle of Savannah in 1779, where more than 500 Haitian soldiers fought alongside American colonial troops against the British in the Revolutionary War.
He asserts that more diverse relationships, which translation services unlock, are the key to building stronger connections.
“That would be a good step toward better relationships between people from different cultures or different languages, which are factors that increase racism or prejudice," he said. “But if we are able to better understand each other, it would be easier to face challenges together and have better relationships.”
