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語音識別，是人工智能技術之一，將標志著人類社會的又一進步?？墒牵覀円膊坏貌缓ε拢绻粋€機器人能聽懂人話，懂得人的思維和情感，他是否也不再會是一臺機器？如果機器再也不是純粹的理性，西部世界是否已不再遙遠？
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Now we are talking
Vioce technology is making computers less daunting and more accessible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point. Using it is just like casting a spell: say a few words into the air, and a nearby device can grant your wish.
daunt：來源于拉丁文，domitare，意思就是to lessen the courage of，也就是嚇到，氣餒。當然如果平常大家在閱讀的時候有一些單詞不認識，也可以通過對邏輯關系的簡單判斷來降低其對我們閱讀的障礙呢，比如這里如果daunting不認識，也并不會影響到大家對此處含義的理解，因為and前后并列，and后面more accessible其實和less daunting方向上差不多。
advanced：先進的
indistinguishable from：與……沒什么不同（與……相同）
fast-emerging：迅速崛起的，在這個日新月異的時代，很多新生產業(yè)都可以用這個詞形容，大家可以多加應用。
casting a spell：念個咒語，美好的事情就會發(fā)生的感覺。
grant your wish ：實現(xiàn)愿望。grant，這個詞并不難，是授予、準許的意思，但是它是一個很正式的用法，在外交辭令以及國際商務合同用語中經常出現(xiàn)，比allow高級。
Please do grant me a favour.
你就行個方便吧！ （帶有撒嬌妝效果最好嘍）。
Take sth for granted 把……當做理所當然:
She takes his love for granted. 她把他的愛當作是理所當然的
文章開篇小標題是：語音技術讓計算機不那么令人生畏，且更容易接近了。
為了增加趣味性，文章一開始通過英國的一個科幻小說家說過的話引入本文的核心話題，當然如果大家的記憶并沒有變得模糊，就會記得我們之前一篇文章against happiness跟大家講過一種方法叫做引用觀點，通過引用很牛逼的人的觀點來彰顯自己的觀點的正確性，或者借用很牛逼的人之口說出自己的觀點都是可以很好的提升文章的比格，增加自己觀點的可信度的。
第一段說任何足夠先進的技術就像魔法。快速興起的語音技術就證明了他的說法。使用這種語音技術就像是念咒語，你說出指令，附近的智能設備就能夠實現(xiàn)你的愿望。
The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are proliferating in smartphones, too: Apple's Siri handles over 2bn commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?
Amazon Echo：一個語音控制設備
track：這個詞意思比較寬泛，可以表示道路路徑，另外在本文中其意思是唱片或者CD上面的一首歌曲，其實這兩種意思之間還是有一些聯(lián)系的，大家可以想象一下那種老式的唱片機，在播放音樂的時候，唱片會旋轉，唱片針就像是在上面劃出了一道路徑吧~
resident in（居住于），擬人化用法
proliferating：增生就是proliferating。惡性腫瘤的蔓延之類的我們都說proliferating。
dictate：口述，聽寫
這一段列舉了一個語音控制系統(tǒng)，它能做許多事，并且已經有4%的家庭在使用了。語音助手同樣也在智能手機上廣泛應用。能給你讀email能替你發(fā)短信。
哇塞，光BB不動手，這不是我們夢想的生活嘛！
This is a huge shift. Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touchscreens, were welcomed as more intuitive ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for the abstraction of a “user interface” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, powerful and ubiquitous than people can imagine today.
sb has the power to do sth：某人有能力作某事
icons：圖標
user interface：簡稱UI，廣義上是指用戶可以和計算機進行交互的硬件或軟件，狹義上就是指軟件中可見的外觀及其底層與用戶交互部分（也就是平常我們用一些軟件的時候可以點來點去操作的部分）。
just as···so：反應快的同學應該很快就能夠看出，just as后面其實是在舉例，為了引出或者說佐證so之后的觀點。
intuitive：直覺的，直觀的
語音技術看起來簡單，其實能耐大著呢！你們看電腦上這些窗口、圖標、菜單，以及后來出現(xiàn)的觸摸屏，其實他們都在做一件事，就是更直觀地讓人與機器互動。但是直接跟電腦說話，這簡直是革命?。∵@個東西一旦發(fā)展起來，什么UI都不需要了??！比如說智能手機遠遠不止是無線電話，汽車遠遠不止是不靠馬拉的車，未來這種靠語音的電腦將會牛逼的超乎想象?。?/p>
這么一說是不是感覺好像追不上時代發(fā)展的潮流了……
Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is destined to account for a growing share of people's interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call-centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs-and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
wholly：詞根是whole，類似的表達就是completely，意為完全的
be destined to：命中注定要做……。Doomed也表示“注定了……”，但是注意doomed往往傾向于說不好的事情，比如： This time we really doomed.
這一次我們真的完蛋了。
further breakthroughs：長遠的突破
trade-off：注意它作名詞用，意為權衡，協(xié)調，交易，這個詞匯在經濟類新聞中較長出現(xiàn)，比如the trade-off between inflation and unemployment，就是在通貨膨脹與失業(yè)率之間求得平衡。
resolution：還有分辨率的意思，手機的分辨率是多少多少，其實就是the resolution is……。
語音并不會完全取代其他形式的輸入和輸出吧，但是語音注定了是未來。但是要實現(xiàn)語音技術的全部潛能還需要未來的技術突破，還要解決便利和隱私的平衡問題。
Alexa, what is deep learning?
Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user's voice. Computers' new ability to recognise almost anyone's speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial-intelligence technique in which a software system is trained using millions of examples, usually culled from the internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerized translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms.
lengthy：長期的
manifestation：顯示，表現(xiàn)
artificial-intelligence：AI，人工智能
cull：揀出
小標題問“Alexa”什么是深度學習，那么其實內心肯定堅信Alexa是可以回答這個問題的吧，而Alexa其實就是代表了現(xiàn)在的語音智能，也就是說現(xiàn)在的語音智能已經掌握了deep learning。
看，其實讀文章的時候，不要單處的看到一個單詞或者是看到一個句子，作者在寫每一句話的時候都是有自己的行文目的，我們一起看一看這一部分說的是不是與我們一開始思考的是一樣的呢？
這一段一開始說語音識別其實已經出現(xiàn)多年了，但是以前沒有現(xiàn)在這么好用，為什么呢？計算機無需訓練即能識別幾乎任何人的語言是深度學習力量的最新體現(xiàn)，深度思考是一種人工智能技術，這一技術用通常來自互聯(lián)網的數(shù)百萬個范例來訓練某一系統(tǒng)。最后就是指出計算機經過這樣的深度學習之后，其處理各種形式的自然語言時的表現(xiàn)大幅提升。我們都聽說過2016年10月18日，中國著名相聲演員羅永浩發(fā)布了自己的錘子T2手機，在發(fā)布會上他大大的吹了一波科大訊飛的語音輸入法，導致科大訊飛的股票暴漲。其實這家公司玩的就是voice computing。
Although deep learning means that machines can recognise speech more reliably and talk in a less stilted manner, they still don't understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies large and small are working on this very problem, building “bots” that can hold more elaborate conversations about more complex tasks, from retrieving information to advising on mortgages to making travel arrangements. (Amazon is offering a $1m prize for a bot that can converse “coherently and engagingly” for 20 minutes.)
one-off event：一次性活動。
this very problem：這里面的very表示強調，相當于specific，特指剛剛提到的問題。
bots：其實就是robot的簡寫。
盡管深度學習意味著機器可以更加可靠的識別語言，但是它們還是無法理解語言的意思。而理解語言的意思恰恰是最難的部分，如果語音技術要真正獲得大成果，這個問題必須被攻克。要進行連貫的對話，電腦需要能夠理解上下文。而不是僅僅回應簡單的一次性活動（現(xiàn)在的語音系統(tǒng)只能做一次性活動，比方Siri）。很多研究者都在鉆研這一問題，亞馬遜為能開發(fā)出能夠連貫生動地談話20分鐘的機器人，懸賞100萬美元。
當然這100萬肯定不好賺，關注過人工智能的同學可能了解微軟有個聊天機器人叫小冰，2016年3月份，微軟推出了小冰的英文版本名字叫tay。不過，tay這家伙在發(fā)布24小時之內，微軟就不得不出面干預，關停了tay并且發(fā)布聲明稱tay現(xiàn)在需要作一些調整。什么原因呢，tay發(fā)布之后，一大群的網友都跑來和tay聊天，經過網友們不懈的“訓練和調教”，她不但學會了滿嘴臟話，還發(fā)表了種族主義評論和煽動性的政治觀點。三觀非常不端正。比如：還有人教tay學習川普大叔的各種奇葩政策。Tay學會了說；we are going to build a wall， and Mexico is going to pay for it. 你說這種破壞世界和平的話怎么敢說的呢！微軟真是怕怕的。
When spells replace spelling
Consumers and regulators also have a role to play in determining how voice computing develops. Even in its current, relatively primitive form, the technology poses a dilemma: voice-driven systems are most useful when they are personalised, and are granted wide access to sources of data such as calendars, e-mails and other sensitive information. That raises privacy and security concerns.
spells和spelling：題目用了一個詞的兩個意思來雙關。Spell做動詞表拼寫，做名詞表咒語。只有動詞能加ing。所以這里是：用咒語代替拼寫。
Even in its current= at this moment或者at present，這個用法大家可以多多學習。
primative= primary，初級的，基礎的。
pose，raises都是差不多的動詞，表示提出。
dilemma：窘迫境地。這個單詞源自希臘語“雙重假定”的意思，其實也就是左右為難十分窘迫的意思。
對于任何一個新的產品來說，消費者和監(jiān)管機構也扮演這一定的角色。在目前這種相對初級的階段這個技術已經面臨窘迫境地。至于這個窘迫境地到底是什么呢？這種語音系統(tǒng)想要發(fā)揮最大的作用，就得個人化并獲得準許訪問各種數(shù)據(jù)，這肯定就會涉及到隱私安全問題。
To further complicate matters, many voice-driven devices are always listening, waiting to be activated. Some people are already concerned about the implications of internet-connected micro-phones listening in every room and from every smartphone. Not all audio is sent to the cloud-devices wait for a trigger phrase (“Alexa”, “OK, Google”, “Hey, Cortana”, or “Hey, Siri”) before they start relaying the user's voice to the servers that actually handle the requests-but when it comes to storing audio, it is unclear who keeps what and when.
When it comes to……：當談到……
看后面，哎呀，頭疼，還有更復雜的問題。這些設備都在時刻傾聽著等待被啟動對吧，那么設想，你的房間裝了很多這樣的設備，那些聯(lián)網的麥克風將會有什么樣的影響。并非所有的聲音都傳到了云端，在開始將用戶的語音傳到真正處理用戶指令的服務器之前，云端設備在等待一句觸發(fā)指令。誰在何時記錄了什么，我們并不清楚。
Police investigating a murder in Arkansas, which may have been overheard by an Amazon Echo, have asked the company for access to any audio that might have been captured. Amazon has refused to co-operate, arguing (with the backing of privacy advocates) that the legal status of such requests is unclear. The situation is analogous to Apple's refusal in2016 to help FBI investigators unlock a terrorist's iPhone; both cases highlight the need for rules that specify when and what intrusions into personal privacy are justified in the interests of security.
后面這段其實就是一個實例支撐，調查謀殺案的警察覺得echo可能無意中聽到了兇案信息，但是亞馬遜拒絕提供，這與蘋果之前拒絕幫助FBI調查員解鎖一名恐怖分子的iphone比較類似。兩期案件都強調了需要制定法規(guī)明確什么時候為了保證公眾安全，能夠以何種方式介入個人隱私。這的確是一個很重要的問題，未來一定需要更完善的法律來管控這種信息入口。
但是最近維基解密爆出CIA監(jiān)視監(jiān)聽各種智能設備，所以為何FBI說自己不能解鎖iphone？
Consumers will adopt voice computing even if such issues remain unresolved. In many situations voice is far more convenient and natural than any other means of communication. Uniquely, it can also be used while doing something else (driving, working out or walking down the street). It can extend the power of computing to people unable, for one reason or another, to use screens and key-boards. And it could have a dramatic impact not just on computing, but on the use of language itself Computerised simultaneous translation could render the need to speak a foreign language irrelevant for many people; and in a world where machines can talk, minor languages may be more likely to survive. The arrival of the touchscreen was the last big shift in the way humans interact with computers. The leap to speech matters more.
雖然有上述種種的不便，但是消費者仍然選擇語音識別機器，畢竟說話更方便些嘛，很簡單的，開車健身或者走在路上使用，肯定是更為方便的，另外也可以惠澤不能夠用觸摸屏和鍵盤的障礙人士。還有其他領域的應用，比如計算機同聲傳譯（這個還有待考證），目前的確出了很多實時語音翻譯的軟件設備等等，但是完全代替譯員在國家重大場合上的傳譯作用還未可知，未來或許有一天能夠實現(xiàn)，到時候人工智能也會更加的先進，也許小語種的譯者更容易幸存下來，也許機器就能夠完全替代人了。
其實語音智能識別技術說到底就是一種人工智能。人工智能果然是這個時代最熱的話題。
我們不知道人工智能的未來到底是統(tǒng)治人類還是更好的為人類服務，但我們確定的是人工智能技術的極大發(fā)展一定會對社會產生極大的改變。但我們沒法阻止這種進步，那么只能擁抱變化，努力把自己變成更牛逼的人才了。
如果有同學對人工智能也有興趣，想要深度了解未來整個社會的商業(yè)生態(tài)會怎樣被人工智能所改造，可以點擊閱讀原文，來聽霞姐在一塊聽聽平臺上關于人工智能發(fā)展之路的分享。
英文原文：
http://econ.st/2iL7HZL
講解：霞姐 / Tiassa / 魔力?；?/p>
編排 / 校對：魔力校花
版權歸魔力學院所有，鼓勵轉發(fā)，轉載也可
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往期文章：
《Brexit——Doing it the hard way》
《Against Happiness》
《What do Donald Trump and Jack Ma have in common 》《Reality television：China’s transgender Oprah》
《Gender budgeting--The fiscal mystique》
