走进“魅力合肥”丨​Speech Valley offers glimpse into future

By Wang WeiYi, Photo by Li Yiwen

Like to talk with foreign businessmen in meetings but lack the skills? Want to travel alone in a foreign country but worry about the language barrier?

Let’s face it – when you need to communicate with foreigners, language skills are worth their weight in gold. Well, you no longer need to worry because now there is a pocket-sized digital interpreter that can handle any situation.

Dread the heat wave that will meet you at home when you return from work on a scorching day? How about just using your remote-control device to turn on your home air-conditioner right from your office chair?

What if you feel ill while driving a car or while sitting on the subway? Once again, no need to worry; just glance at the wearable digital device that monitors your health. It will talk with you in terms at least as clear as those from your doctor.

All these stress-relieving advances have already been realized or are being worked on by enterprises in Speech Valley, an industrial park that forms part of the Hefei National High-Tech Industry Development Zone.

Launched in 2013 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Anhui government, the Speech Valley is China’s first national-level industrial base in the field of AI. As of 2018, it was home to 433 enterprises totaling an output value of 65 billion yuan ($9 billion). Many of their intelligent voice and artificial intelligence products, from educational robots to voice-recognition mice to translation gadgets, are hugely popular in the market.

A star in-house enterprise, iFlyteck Co Ltd, stole the limelight at the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which took place in Shanghai from Aug 29 to 31. Its next generation speech translation technologies and system grabbed the topmost honor of the conference – the Super AI Leader Award.

The newly launched iFlytech Translator 3.0 supports real-time translation between Chinese and other languages, covering nearly 200 countries and regions. Its offline and photo translation functions plus the extension of translation services for medical, financial, law, energy, computer, foreign trade and sports scenarios are causing a particular buzz.

Maintaining the momentum, the Speech Valley enterprises will see their operating revenue exceed 200 billion yuan by 2025, with the intelligent voice and artificial intelligence products reaching 1.5 billion users, according to a development plan outline by Anhui government.

责任编辑：李艺雯

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