Roblox, the online gaming platform, has unveiled a groundbreaking AI-powered "unified translation model," enabling players to engage in real-time text conversations despite speaking different languages. Developed in-house, this innovative system ensures seamless communication with a base latency of just 100 milliseconds, creating a virtually instantaneous chatting experience for users.
Dan Sturman, Roblox's chief technology officer, highlighted the significance of this development, emphasizing how it facilitates cross-language interactions within the gaming community. He described a scenario where players discover that their newfound friend, previously thought to be typing in English, is actually conversing in Korean, without either party noticing due to the seamless translation.
The unified translation model supports 16 languages, allowing users to converse effortlessly in their native language while engaging with others in different languages. Sturman outlined the challenges faced during the model's development, particularly in ensuring independent translation between all supported languages and optimizing speed for real-time communication.
Roblox's approach involved building a transformer-based large language model (LLM) trained on both public and private data. Expert translation apps were then utilized to train the model for each language, including less common pairs like French to Thai, which required innovative techniques such as back translation to enhance accuracy.
To ensure the model's effectiveness, Roblox incorporated human evaluators to translate popular slang and trending terms across various languages, maintaining an ongoing process to keep the system updated with the latest phrases.
In extensive testing, the new translation system significantly enhanced user engagement and session quality on the Roblox platform. With 70 million daily active users spanning over 180 countries and exchanging over 2.4 billion messages daily, this advancement marks a pivotal step towards fostering inclusivity and seamless communication within the gaming community.
Roblox CEO David Baszucki's vision for interoperability in the metaverse underscores the platform's commitment to advancing digital connectivity and accessibility across diverse user demographics.
