Am I the only one who remembers when that was the stuff of science fiction? It was not so long ago an open question if machines would ever be able to transcribe speech in a useful way. How quickly we become numb to the magic.
The other day, alone in a city I'd never been to before, I snapped a photo of a bistro's daily specials hand-written on a blackboard in Chinese, copied the text right out of the photo, translated it into English, learned how to pronounce the menu item I wanted, and ordered some dinner.
Two years ago this story would have been: notice the special board, realize I don't quite understand all the characters well enough to choose or order, and turn wistfully to the menu to hopefully find something familiar instead. Or skip the bistro and grab a pre-packaged sandwich at a convenience store.
> Two years ago
This functionality was available in 2014, on either an iPhone or android. I ordered specials in Taipei way before Covid. Here's the blog post celebrating it:
https://blog.google/products/translate/one-billion-installs/
This is all a post about AI, hype, and skepticism. In my childhood sci-fi, the idea of people working multiple jobs to still not be able to afford rent was written as shocking or seen as dystopian. All this incredible technology is a double edges sword, but doesn't solve the problems of the day, only the problems of business efficiency, which exacerbates the problems of the day.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/470008/bing_translator_app_g...