ANY sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point. Using it is just like casting a spell: say a few words into the air, and a nearby device can grant your wish.
sufficiently adv. 充分地
indistinguishable adj. 不可区分的
science-fiction 科幻小说
fast-emerging 快速崛起
英国科幻小说作家Arthur C. Clarke指出，任何足够先进的技术都与魔法无法区分。 语音计算技术的快速发展证明了他的观点。 使用它就像施放咒语一样：向空中说几句话，附近的设备就可以实现你的愿望。
The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are proliferating in smartphones, too: Apple's Siri handles over 2bn commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?
cylindrical 圆柱形
music tracks 音乐曲目
trivia 琐事
appliances 家电
proliferating 增殖，扩散
dictate 听写
reliably 可靠地
亚马逊Echo是一种语音驱动的圆柱形计算机，位于桌面上，可以呼叫音乐曲目和广播电台，讲述笑话，回答琐事问题和控制智能设备; 甚至在圣诞节之前，它已经在约4％的美国家庭中居住。 智能手机中的语音助手也在不断增加：苹果公司的Siri每周处理超过20亿次的命令，美国的Android手机上的谷歌搜索中有20％是通过语音输入的。 现在口述电子邮件和文本消息足够可靠地发挥作用。 为什么打字时你可以说话？
This is a huge shift. Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touchscreens, were welcomed as more intuitive ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for the abstraction of a “user interface” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, powerful and ubiquitous than people can imagine today.
intuitive 直观的
abolish 废除
wire 电线
ubiquitous 普及的
这是一个巨大的转变。 虽然看起来很简单，但语音通过提供一种自然的交互方式，有能力转换计算。 Windows，图标和菜单，然后触摸屏，作为更直观的方式来处理计算机，而不是输入复杂的键盘命令。 但能够与计算机交谈取消了抽象“用户界面”的需要。 就像手机比现有的手机没有电线一样，汽车不仅仅是没有马匹的马车，所以没有屏幕和键盘的电脑可能比人们现在想象的更有用，更强大和无处不在。
Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is destined to account for a growing share of people's interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs-and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
wholly 完全
destined 注定的
tricky 狡猾的
语音不会完全取代其他形式的输入和输出。 有时，通过打字而不是谈话来与机器通话会更方便（据说亚马逊正在使用内置屏幕的Echo设备）。 但声音注定会占据人们与周围技术的互动增长的份额，这些洗衣机可以告诉你他们剩下的周期有多少，以及企业呼叫中心的虚拟助理。 然而，为了充分发挥其潜力，该技术需要进一步的突破，并解决了便利和隐私权衡之间的棘手问题。
Alexa, what is deep learning?
Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user's voice. Computers' new ability to recognise almost anyone's speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial-intelligence technique in
which a software system is trained using millions of examples, usually culled from the internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerized translation systems are improving rapidly and text- to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms.
unreliable 不可靠的
lengthy 冗长的，漫长的
manifestation 表现
cull 扑杀
accuracy 准确性
Alexa，什么是深度学习？
计算机听写系统已存在多年。 但他们不可靠，需要长时间的培训来学习特定用户的声音。 计算机几乎可以在没有训练的情况下识别几乎任何人的言语的新能力是“深度学习”的最新体现，它是一种人工智能技术
其中一个软件系统使用数百万个示例进行培训，通常从互联网上挑选。 由于深入的学习，现在机器在转录精度方面几乎与人类相当，计算机化的翻译系统正在迅速改进，文本到语音系统变得越来越没有机器人和更自然的声音。 简而言之，计算机在处理各种形式的自然语言方面会变得更好。
Although deep learning means that machines can recognise speech more reliably and talk in a less stilted manner, they still don't understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies large and small are working on this very problem, building “bots” that can hold more elaborate conversations about more complex tasks, from retrieving information to advising on
mortgages to making travel arrangements. (Amazon is offering a $1m prize for a bot that can converse “coherently and engagingly” for 20 minutes.)
flourish 繁荣
coherent 相关的
one-off 一次性
elaborate 阐述
mortgages 抵押贷款
coherently and engagingly 连贯而有趣
尽管深度学习意味着机器可以更加可靠地识别语言，并且能够以一种不那么呆板的方式进行交谈，但他们仍然不理解语言的含义。 这是问题中最困难的一个方面，如果语音驱动计算真的要蓬勃发展，那就必须克服。 计算机必须能够理解上下文，才能保持关于某事的连贯对话，而不仅仅是响应简单的一次性语音命令，就像今天他们大多数人所做的一样（“嘿，Siri，设置一个计时器十分钟”）。 大学和大小公司的研究人员正在研究这个问题，建立“机器人”，可以进行更复杂的关于更复杂任务的对话，从检索信息到提供建议
抵押贷款来安排旅行。 （亚马逊为机器人提供了100万美元的奖金，可以在20分钟内“连贯而有趣地”交流。）
When spells replace spelling
Consumers and regulators also have a role to play in determining how voice computing develops. Even in its current, relatively primitive form, the technology poses a dilemma: voice-driven systems are most useful when they are personalised, and are granted wide access to sources of data such as calendars, e-mails and other sensitive information. That raises privacy and security concerns.
regulators 监管机构
primitive 原始的
dilemma 困境
concern 关注
当拼写替换拼写
消费者和监管机构在确定语音计算如何发展方面也扮演着重要角色。 即使是目前这种相对原始的形式，该技术也带来了两难的困境：语音驱动系统在个性化时非常有用，并且可以广泛访问诸如日历，电子邮件和其他敏感信息等数据源。 这引发了隐私和安全问题。
To further complicate matters, many voice-driven devices are always listening, waiting to be activated. Some people are already concerned about the implications of internet-connected micro-phones listening in every room and from every smartphone. Not all audio is sent to the cloud-devices wait for a trigger phrase (“Alexa”, “OK, Google”, “Hey, Cortana”, or “Hey, Siri”) before they start relaying the user's voice to the servers that actually handle the requests-but when it comes to storing audio, it is unclear who keeps what and when.
complicate 复杂的
trigger 出发
phrase 短语
更复杂的是，许多语音驱动设备总是在等待被激活。 一些人已经关注互联网连接的微型电话在每个房间和每个智能手机上收听的影响。 并非所有音频都会发送到云端设备，然后才能开始将用户的语音转播到服务器，然后等待触发短语（“Alexa”，“OK，Google”，“Hey，Cortana”或“Hey，Siri”） 实际上处理这些请求 - 但是当涉及到存储音频时，谁不知道什么时候保持什么。
Police investigating a murder in Arkansas, which may have been overheard by an Amazon Echo, have asked the company for access to any audio that might have been captured. Amazon has refused to co-operate, arguing (with the backing of privacy advocates) that the legal status of such requests is unclear. The situation is analogous to Apple's refusal in 2016 to help FBI investigators unlock a terrorist's iPhone; both cases highlight the need for rules that specify when and what intrusions into persona1 privacy are justified in the interests of security.
investigate 调查
capture 捕获
advocate 倡导者
analogous 类似的
警方正在调查阿肯色州的一起谋杀案，该案可能被亚马逊Echo侦听到，并要求该公司获取任何可能被捕获的音频。 亚马逊拒绝合作，争辩（在隐私权倡导者的支持下）此类请求的法律地位尚不清楚。 这种情况类似于苹果在2016年拒绝帮助FBI调查人员解锁恐怖分子的iPhone; 这两个案例都突出强调了规则的必要性，这些规则明确规定何时入侵个人隐私是否有利于安全。
Consumers will adopt voice computing even if such issues remain unresolved. In many situations voice is far more convenient and natural than any other means of communication. Uniquely, it can also be used while doing something else (driving, working out or walking down the street). It can extend the power of computing to people unable, for one reason or another, to use screens and key-boards. And it could have a dramatic impact not just on computing, but on the use of language itself Computerised simultaneous translation could render the need to speak a foreign language irrelevant for many people; and in a world where machines can talk, minor languages may be more likely to survive. The arrival of the touchscreen was the last big shift in the way humans interact with computers. The leap to speech matters more.
simultaneous 同时的
render 给予
irrelevant 不相干的
即使这些问题尚未解决，消费者仍将采用语音计算。 在许多情况下，语音比任何其他通信方式都更加方便和自然。 独特的是，它也可以在做别的事情时使用（驾车，锻炼或在街上行走）。 它可以将计算能力扩展到无法由于某种原因使用屏幕和键盘的人们。 它不仅会对计算产生巨大影响，还会对语言本身的使用产生巨大影响。计算机化同声翻译可能会导致需要讲一门与许多人无关的外语; 在机器可以说话的世界里，小语言可能更有可能生存。 触摸屏的到来是人类与电脑交互方式的最后一次重大转变。 言语的飞跃更重要。
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