Word of Mouth

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Series exploring the world of words and the ways in which we use them

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Word of Mouth: Talking to Computers

Talking to Computers

BBC Radio 4 - Word of Mouth, Talking to Computers

Michael Rosen talks to Lane Greene about advances in language technologies.

How does computer translation actually work? And how does my phone know what I'm saying? Michael Rosen talks to author Lane Greene about new developments in language technologies.

Will machine translation ever be as good as human translation? How do services like Google Translate actually work? How does Alexa or Siri know what I'm saying? And will I ever be able to have a true conversation with my virtual assistant? Michael Rosen explores new developments in speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthesis with journalist and author Lane Greene. 

Lane Greene is the language columnist and Spain correspondent at The Economist. He’s the author of two books about language: 'Talk on the Wild Side' and 'You Are What you Speak'.

Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio in Bristol

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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