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[Gord Green]

Amazon would like to get Alexa to a point where it’s translating languages for users through any device on-the-fly. In other words,

Alexa could one day translate what the father of the bride at that wedding in Japan says into your native language as he’s speaking in real-time. Alexa would also one day be able to translate conversations with multiple people speaking in different languages at one setting.

Such a move makes sense for Alexa, which Amazon has long said would evolve into a versatile “Star Trek”-like super computer that accomplishes virtually anything you throw at it with a simple voice command. (It should be noted that one of the “Star Trek” super computer’s most compelling features across the numerous TV series included the ability to translate virtually any language in real-time.)

“To truly realize that vision, you’ll want a number of things: you’ll want to have it everywhere, be able to talk to it from anywhere, be able for it to do all of the things you would want an intelligent assistant do for you, and ultimately do it in a very conversational way,” Amazon Vice President of Alexa Al Lindsay told Yahoo

Alexa will take its most impressive step yet towards realizing Amazon’s vision of creating a Star Trek-like computer that does, well, just about everything.

FROM yahoo finance :

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/amazon-aims-turn-alexa-universal-real-time-language-translator-150024721.html
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Custer]

It sounds plausible that Alexa could do translation in real time, moving on from websites that instantly translate a chunk of text.

I do enjoy audiobooks via Alexa (currently the RCN series by David Drake), but I've not yet tried getting Alexa to read out a book I've got on Kindle, which sounds a neat idea - though I'm not sure that Alexa would add much drama to a tale...