In three years, the CEO of a startup predicts that humans will no longer be necessary for translation, as the company releases an AI app.

• On Wednesday, Unbabel revealed an AI-powered translation service, entering a competitive market.
• Unbabel's new product, Widn.AI, is built on their proprietary large language model known as Tower.
• In three years, AI will replace humans in translation, according to Unbabel CEO Vasco Pedro.

On Wednesday, Unbabel unveiled an AI-powered translation service, intensifying competition in the industry. The CEO cautioned that human translators may become obsolete in the near future.

Unbabel's new product, Widn.AI, is built on the company's proprietary large language model (LLM) called Tower. An LLM is an AI model that powers applications like OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Vasco Pedro, CEO of Unbabel, stated in an interview at the Web Summit in Lisbon that the company's LLM enables AI translation in 32 languages.

Pedro stated that when Unbabel began 10 years ago, AI technology was not as advanced as it is today, so the company's primary focus was on developing hybrid solutions that combined AI and human capabilities.

"For the first time, we believe that AI has fully mastered translation, allowing us to accomplish many tasks without human intervention."

Unbabel's traditional product combined machine learning with human editors to translate words.

Pedro said Widn.AI will not require humans.

Pedro stated that although humans still have a slight edge in extremely challenging scenarios, the advantage is so minute that it's challenging to envision how humans will be required for translation three years from now, given the rapid advancements in AI.

DeepL and Google Translate are established players in the market, with Widn.AI being the latest entrant.

These companies recognize translation as a crucial area where LLMs can be utilized effectively and have developed specialized models to handle different languages.

Pedro recognizes that the revenue per translated word will significantly decrease. However, he stated that the company's growth will be sustained due to an increase in the amount of content translated.

Pedro stated that Unbabel is seeking to raise between $20 million and $50 million in funding from investors to support the growth and development of Widn.AI.