“Humans still have a slight advantage”: for this tech CEO, AI will definitely replace humans in this task within 3 years

News JVTech “Humans still have a slight advantage”: for this tech CEO, AI will definitely replace humans in this task within 3 years

Unbabel is on the case

The end is near. Human beings will soon be completely replaced by artificial intelligence within 3 years. At least, that’s what Vasco Pedro, CEO of Unbabel, a startup specializing in the development of translation tools powered by AI, thinks. Founded in 2013, the Lisbon and San Francisco-based company recently revealed Widn.AI, their new product that is based on the company’s proprietary language model, called Tower.

It enables AI translation in 32 languagessaid Vasco Pedro, the company’s CEO, during an interview with CNBC at the Web Summit in Lisbon. “When we started at Unbabel 10 years ago, AI was not at the level it is now, and so we were very focused on creating hybrid solutions that would combine AI and human”explains the CEO.

“But I think for the first time, we believe that translation is now fully within the realm of AI capabilities, and that you can do a lot of things without needing humans at all in the case of translation. ” Unbabel’s traditional product was one that combined what’s called machine learning, a type of AI, to translate words, but with human editors to check the final product. Vasco Pedro said Widn.AI would not require human intervention.

More room for us

“I think humans still have a slight advantage in very difficult use cases. But that advantage right now is so slim that, except for the most difficult cases, we believe AI is really getting there, and it’s hard for me to see how in three years you’ll need of humans to translate anything”he explains. “There will always be humans responsible for making sure things get translated and delivered to the right places”he added. Widn.AI is the latest product in an increasingly competitive market that includes Google Translate and products from German startup DeepL.

These companies view translation as a key area in which LLMs can be used effectively and have trained models specifically to address different languages. Pedro recognizes that the revenue per translated word will “reduce drastically”. But he declared that‘there would be an increase in the amount of translated content which would support business growth. Unbabel is talking to investors and looking to raise between $20 million and $50 million in funding to fuel the growth and development of Widn.AI.