I suggest you watch some demo videos highlighting the amazing new capabilities of ChatGPT 4o (that’s the letter “o” and not a zero, proving that even the smartest technology in the world can be victimized by dumb branding decisions). 

One of the most profound and transformative skills released in this version is real-time language translation. In this video, ChatGPT is translating a conversation between a woman speaking Italian and a man speaking English. The system currently understands 50 languages; I’m sure over time, it will learn them all — except “teenager,” a language which shall remain indecipherable by any intelligence, natural or artificial, until the end of time. 

Imagine visiting a supplier’s factory in China, talking in near real-time with the managers and workers there and then going to Brazil, Mexico, France and Germany and enjoying the same capabilities in every country. You can have very low latency conversations with most people in the world, regardless of what languages everyone speaks. 

This technology is available — right now — on the smartphone you already own. 

‘Star Trek’ Translation Capabilities 240 Years Early

The original “Star Trek” series was set in the 2260s (according to ChatGPT 4o) and relied on a “universal translator” to normalize every language on every planet into English. It may have seemed far-fetched at the time, but with the awesome growth of AI’s capabilities, it doesn’t look so fantastic anymore. 

After all, if AlphaZero can teach itself to play chess better than any human over several hours, how long could it take an AI invented more than 200 years from now to master a language? 

This has profound implications for human beings, particularly in business settings. I have always regretted not learning to speak a second language, but how much of a disadvantage is it now that ChatGPT can easily interpret any conversation I wish to hold with just about anyone? 

The broader question is, what’s the motivation for business people to learn foreign languages? Or, to the point of this column’s title, why does it matter if a language is “foreign” if AI removes almost all the communication barriers between people regardless of the languages they use? 

Sales and Service In a World With No Language Barriers

When I was vice president of marketing at White Cap, a construction supplies distributor, we’d print sheets for our Southern California branches sharing the pictures, phone numbers and email addresses of our bilingual counter employees. Field employees would hand these to our Spanish-speaking customers; it helped us grow the business among a fast-growing demographic. 

When my wife and I vacationed in Italy a few years ago, we relied on Google Translate to help us communicate with the locals, who seemed delighted to interact with this startling new technology. 

Using the app, I asked one woman, “Do you know of a good café close by that has sidewalk seating?” After recovering from her surprise, she carefully leaned in and gave us a detailed and earnest answer, in Italian, that wound up with us enjoying a wonderful meal with sidewalk seating. 

The capabilities of ChatGPT 4o work on a different level. For one thing, there’s a lot less latency – you can call up ChatGPT and ask it to act as a translator and it will literally listen in and translate continuously as long as the conversation lasts. 

However, it also can now see and understand the world, meaning you can, for example, point your phone camera at a sign, a menu, a magazine or a book and ask ChatGPT to interpret it. Or have it identify various objects in your environment in other languages. 

I know there’s a lot more to culture than language. Having the ability to translate Spanish instantly doesn’t build the same connections as discussing last night’s Liga MX match. I’d argue that understanding a non-English-speaking customer well enough to solve a problem, complete an order and take care of his needs is immeasurably better than not being able to do those things. 

Whether on the counter or over the phone, on a website or via email, tools such as ChatGPT will remove language barriers between customers and distributors and facilitate commerce. How long will it be before sales reps have productive conversations with non-English speakers as smartphones translate everything in real time? How about tomorrow?

Air Travel Made the World Smaller; Universal Translation Will Make It Easier.

I’ve often said that if I could distill 30 years of market research into a single customer request, it would be, “Please make my job easier.” In my career, I’ve seen the introduction of many technologies designed to do just that: fax machines, personal computers, email, e-procurement, marketplaces, e-commerce and many more. 

All relied on suppliers and customers speaking the same language — usually English as it’s the language of business worldwide. 

However, I’ve encountered countless situations where someone didn’t speak English or wasn’t fluent enough to make communication seamless (although in every case, their English was better than my Spanish, German, Chinese or whatever language they spoke). By taking that language barrier off the table, you not only facilitate commerce, you create better connections. 

I may not follow Liga MX games, but now you can explain why you’re passionate about them and I can understand what you’re saying. 

Where Will AI-Enabled Language Translation Go From Here?

Or translated instantly into these languages:

As of this writing, rumors are swirling that Apple and OpenAI will announce a partnership soon, resulting in ChatGPT powering Siri, which certainly needs an upgrade. Given Apple’s expertise in creating fantastic device/human interfaces, I expect this to be a slick, well-designed, and very easy-to-use implementation, making it highly convenient to access all ChatGPT’s features, including language translation. 

I’ve noticed that when we think about the possibilities of coming across intelligent entities in the universe, we tend to assume that there is one language per planet. Going back to “Star Trek,” Vulcan is a planet; it’s populated by Vulcans, a race, who all speak Vulcan, a language. 

That’s totally inconsistent with human experience. According to Ethnologue: Languages of the World, an annual reference publication providing statistics and other information on the world’s living languages, more than 7,100 languages are in use today on Earth. 

Which ones are foreign? Well, it depends on the one you speak natively. To Americans, any language that isn’t English is foreign. However, in most countries, we’re the foreigners and English is a foreign language. Perhaps AI translation will make these terms obsolete or, at least, much less meaningful in the future. 

Universal translation is already creeping into our lives. My company has a growing audience in Europe; when someone posts a message on LinkedIn about our content in German, Italian or French, I simply click the “See Translation” link. I instantly understand what they wrote and can reply. 

I don’t think we can quite fathom what it means to eliminate the communication barriers between human beings. I’m hopeful that facilitating commerce is only a start; perhaps being able to talk to each other can achieve bigger goals, such as reducing conflict in the world. 

While I don’t think language barriers caused most wars, I struggle to find major wars in history that involved combatants speaking the same language, except for the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. In most of the others, the language barrier likely contributed to the conflict. 

So, here’s to AI language translation. May it lead to more interesting travel, greater commerce and fewer wars. Perhaps understanding each other more easily will help us look at others (and be seen) less like “foreigners” and more like friends — or, at least, drive better business relationships.