Image: Microsoft
Microsoft's newest artificial intelligence feature, which is coming to Teams, allows you to sound like you are speaking a language you are not. The app offers a new AI interpreter that simulates your voice and provides near-real-time voice interpretation.
The feature is being tested by a limited group of users and is expected to roll out in 2025 for accounts with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. It initially supports nine languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish. Microsoft plans to add more languages in the future.
According to Nicole Herskowitz, corporate vice president of productivity and collaboration for Copilot, the feature is designed to democratize access to interpreters as it can be expensive to hire human interpreters for everyday activities, like meetings. However, as with most AI and computer interpretations, Herskowitz concedes it may not be 100 percent accurate.
Microsoft said it plans to enable Teams' multi-language transcription service so that users can see the transcription in the original language alongside the interpreted version
You will need to provide consent via a notification to use the feature. You can also enable it in your privacy settings. If you don't want to use it, there's also an opt-out setting that will disable voice replication and enable the default voice.