Zoom will use AppTek’s language packages to break language barriers and connect Zoom users around the world through multilingual automatic speech recognition and neural machine translation technologies.

AppTek, a leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Neural Machine Translation (NMT), Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Natural Language Processing / Understanding (NLP/U) technologies, today announced that Zoom Video Communications, Inc. will purchase AppTek’s language packages as part of its journey to improve the state-of-the-art for live automatic transcriptions and translations in Zoom’s products, taking a step toward one day enabling users to communicate around the world regardless of the language they speak.

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AppTek will allow Zoom the use of its high-quality acoustic and language packs. This drives language and dialect expansion, giving Zoom a step up as it works to create cross-language interactions across dozens of languages to improve meeting productivity and efficiency for Zoom users.

“We are thrilled at the opportunity to support the impressive and innovative language technology and research group at Zoom,” said AppTek CEO Mudar Yaghi. “AppTek and Zoom share the same mission – to connect people around the globe regardless of their language or location. I look forward to the innovations this will bring to Zoom users around the world.”

“Zoom is committed to seamlessly connecting people regardless of the language they speak,” said Vijay Parthasarathy, Head of AI/ML at Zoom. “We are excited to have use of AppTek’s groundbreaking and expert language packages to help us in our journey to make cross-language communication a reality.”

The purchase follows Zoom’s acquisition of Kites in June 2021. Kites, a startup dedicated to the development of speech translation technologies, was co-founded by Dr. Alex Waibel and Dr. Sebastian Stüker, both of whom have academic roots at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Dr. Waibel is a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and pioneer in speech translation technologies. Dr. Sebastian Stüker, former CEO of Kites, serves today as Director of Research Science at Zoom.

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