Slator

1 month ago | slator.com | Sean Song

Sean Song lives in the Washington DC area and he is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Southern California. He became a translator and subtitler while he was living in Los Angeles twenty years ago. He has translated thousands of movies and TV shows from English to Chinese and Chinese to English, including working with Ronny Yu, the director of the movie Fearless starring Jet Li, to create and translate its subtitles.

2 months ago | slator.com | Maria Stasimioti

Chinese AI company DeepSeek made headlines in late January 2025 by launching large language models (LLMs) DeepSeek-R1 and DeepSeek-V3. DeepSeek is based in Hangzhou, a large city and major tech hub near Shanghai, which is also home to Alibaba. The reason for all that buzz? The models are open-source, DeepSeek-R1 delivers performance comparable to OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1, and they reportedly operate at a fraction of the cost.

2 months ago | slator.com | Seyma Albarino

For multilingual voice AI startup ElevenLabs, the new year is apparently off to a good start. According to a January 24, 2025 piece by TechCrunch and now confirmed by the company, ElevenLabs recently closed a Series C of USD 180m at a valuation between USD 3-3.3bn. AI dubbing is a key feature of the ElevenLabs platform. According to TechCrunch, the round was led by ICONIQ Growth, with possible participation from Andreessen Horowitz.

2 months ago | slator.com | Rocío Txabarriaga

On January 29, 2025, the UK National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) published a call to action on the Register’s site asking court interpreters to withdraw services (stage walkouts) from HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) on multiple dates in February. The interpreters are protesting low pay, lack of transparency in procurement processes, and a breach of trust by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). There have been five of these walkouts previously around the same issues.

2 months ago | slator.com | Seyma Albarino

Communication services company Sorenson Communications has announced the acquisition of two companies that specialize in sign language interpreting technology. Hand Talk is a startup that uses AI and digital avatars to provide automated sign language translation, a feature that is particularly useful for translating content on websites or other platforms where dynamic, interactive communication isn’t required but accessibility is still essential.