Roblox has introduced a cutting-edge AI model designed to translate in-game chat messages instantaneously. This innovative feature supports a total of 16 languages, including English, Japanese, Thai, and French, among others. Now, players can communicate seamlessly across linguistic barriers, enhancing the global gaming experience on the platform.
Roblox, the platform renowned for enabling users to create, share, and engage in various games and experiences, has introduced a groundbreaking AI model engineered to translate text chats instantaneously. According to the company, this “custom multilingual model” is so efficient that users won’t even notice if the other person is typing in a different language.
While AI-powered translation is not a new concept, Roblox claims to have significantly reduced latency to approximately 100 milliseconds with its new system. To achieve this, the company developed a transformer-based large language model (LLM) tailored specifically for the task. This LLM not only translates messages but also recognizes and adapts to in-game slang and abbreviations like ‘obby’, ‘afk’, and ‘lol’.
The internally developed LLM boasts support for 16 languages, including English, Japanese, French, Polish, Vietnamese, and Thai, among others. It seamlessly facilitates translation between any language pair, enhancing communication across diverse user bases. Despite the blocking of prohibited and offensive words, users retain the ability to view the original message by simply tapping the icon next to the player’s name.
During an interview with The Verge, Roblox CTO Dan Sturman emphasized the rationale behind their decision to create their own AI model rather than relying on external solutions, given the extensive scope of their project. Sturman further revealed the company’s future plans to utilize AI in replacing prohibited words with permissible alternatives and providing real-time voice translation capabilities. Additionally, Roblox appears to be actively working on automatically translating text found within images, textures, and 3D models. Notably, at their developer conference last year, Roblox unveiled new tools that empower users to modify the size, shape, and texture of their avatars, as well as import their own 3D models and images.