Zoom acquires an AI company for better real-time translation feature

NEW DELHI: Popular video conferencing app Zoom has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions – Kites GmbH (“Kites”). Kites is a start-up dedicated to developing real-time Machine Translation solutions.
The company has not yet disclosed the terms of the transactions yet. Zoom says that the acquisition will help in enhancing the platform. It will make it easier to communicate with people who speak different languages. Also with this acquisition, the company is planning to add translation functionality to the video conferencing app.
Kites was founded in 2015 and has academic roots with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Kites’ team consists of 12 research scientists that will help zoom in improving meeting productivity and efficiency by offering multi-language translation capabilities for Zoom users.
Presently, Zoom offers the feature of real-time transcription but it is limited to people who speak English. However, with this latest move, the company is planning to add language support to this feature.
Recently, Zoom announced that it will be introducing a new feature that will enable users to add pronouns to their profile names. The aim is to enable users to better express their gender.
The pronouns will be visible by default for users on the free Basic Zoom plan as well as for accounts with a single licensed user. In the profile settings, there are options to ‘always share’, ‘never share’, or to ask during every meeting before displaying.