Back in the day when I was studying #ComputationalLinguistics, we learned about early attempts to translate phone calls on the fly using computers.

This felt like a bright future. No language barriers no more! A dream of mankind, which for example came true in fiction, such as the Babelfish you'd stick in your ear in “Hitchhiker's guide to Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. It was no coincidence that one of the first online translation systems was called #Babelfish, actually based on a #translation software called #SYSTRAN, which had started out in 1968 already! Babelfish was operated by the first big search engine, #AltaVista, until #Yahoo took over.

What we didn't forsee at all back then was that #AI #MachineTranslation would not be serving the user – but users would rather serve companies… especially one other search engine company that at some point has abandoned their slogan “don't be evil”.

We should have known. A (human) translator you can't trust is something we had seen in the movies already…

Dude, the Babelfish has arrived.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-31/apple-airpods-new-translation-feature-has-a-major-downside

#DouglasAdams #HitchhikersGuidetotheGalaxy #Babelfish #technology #tech #innovation #engineering #business #technews #gadgets

After Babel Fish: The promise of cheap translations at the speed of the Web

https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/lessons-of-babel/articles/after-babel-fish

#HackerNews #cheaptranslations #WebSpeed #BabelFish #languageinnovation

„Live Translation with #AirPods is not available if you are in the EU and your Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU.“ Ba-Dum-tss. How to get #Apple Intelligence - Apple Support (DE) support.apple.com/de-de/121115 #Babelfish #BadNews

How to get Apple Intelligence ...

„Live Translation with #AirPods is not available if you are in the EU and your Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU.“

Ba-Dum-tss.

How to get #Apple Intelligence - Apple Support (DE) https://support.apple.com/de-de/121115

#Babelfish #BadNews

@oneeyedman cómo se usa en los oídos, yo creo que es más bien como el #BabelFish de #THHGTTG

Lástima que está limitado en el número de idiomas, igual que la app #Translation del aifon.

Dudo que queme muchos bosques, porque se procesa localmente, en el teléfono, sin granjas de servidores

Apple has invented #babelfish

I think that #internationalization of scientific #education & #research is good, and a roll back (as has been considered in several European countries) would be bad.
A topical article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01983-3

My reflection (starring the #babelfish !):
https://manywordsandnumbers.org/2025/07/05/science-needs-the-babel-fish-%f0%9f%90%a0/

Live Translation em ligações telefônicas

baseadas também num modelo LLM rodando local no telefone

#wwdc #babelfish

#Babelfish https://www.heise.de/news/Acer-steigt-mit-Smart-Ring-und-Dolmetscher-Ohrstoepseln-in-Wearable-Markt-ein-10388359.html

Her kommer #babelfish https://www.tek.no/nyheter/rykte/i/5ElovO/apples-airpods-kan-faa-direkteoversetting-av-spraak
#TheHitchhikersGideToTheGalaxy

Apple is turning its AirPods into the Babel fish from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Apple (AAPL) is designing a new AirPods feature that would allow users to listen and respond to live translations of in-person conversations, according to a Bloomberg report that cites unnamed sources. The feature will reportedly work in tandem with an iPhone, which will translate speech for the user and relay it to a pair of AirPods. When the user responds, the iPhone will play a translation out loud, enabling a two-way conversation.

https://qz.com/apple-airpods-translate-ios-19-1851770018

#airpod #apple #babelFish #translate

@jfdm Runtime Verification does some insanely bleeding edge stuff in the Formal Methods world. They even have K semantics which is like a programming #babelfish

I learned about Rosu and his brilliant team through their work on #IELE for the #Cardano ecosystem.

https://github.com/runtimeverification

Never have I read a claim more absurd that the advert for these earphones from Aliexpress...that make a bold claim to use A.I as essentially international translators....and all for less than 10 Euros.

Is this what we are doing now writing A.I in front of anything to claim magical properties????

Not even the Babel Fish from Hitchhikers, would be this cheap!

#BanAI #AI #Headphones #BabelFish

🔊 Auf #radioeins läuft...

Babel Fish:
🎵 Mania

#NowPlaying #BabelFish

https://open.spotify.com/track/1kNYtVbgjO4EgDUWNBdT7c

The newest missconception about #ai A german politican just said "Learning a second language is not needed anymore, as my phone translates it" While I love the idea of a #babelfish learning a language is so much more then learning to listen, speak, read and write in one.
Learnig a language will train you to think differently. Recognize similiarites and differences. Deepends the understanding of a culture. I still wish I would speak more then two languages fluently.

..

#hhgttg #translation #babelfish #LINUX #UNIX #FOSS #imagemagick #society #fediverse #meme