Microsoft patents speech translation that matches speaker's gender
Microsoft describes a method for translating spoken language into text that adjusts the wording to match the speaker's gender. The system can operate in masculine, feminine, or automatic modes, where the automatic mode analyzes audio signals to determine the appropriate form. It also uses a training process that corrects gender bias in the data to ensure the translation model learns accurate gender cues.
In the filing’s own words
A technique translates speech in a first language to text in a second language manner in a manner that is appropriate for the gender of the speaker. In some implementations, the technique receives an input setting that specifies one of three translation modes: masculine mode, feminine mode, and auto mode. The first two modes produce translations in masculine and feminine modes by default, respectively, while the auto mode produces translations in forms that are based on the detected characteristics of audio signals. According to some implementations, the technique uses a training framework that automatically converts a corpus of training examples that exhibit gender bias (e.g., a male gender bias) to training examples having a reducing incidence of gender bias. In some implementations, the training framework updates weights of the machine-trained model based on a combination of two loss components: translation loss and gender loss.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method for training a machine-trained model for translating speech comprising: receiving original training examples that include audio signals containing speech in a first language by speakers, first-language textual transcripts of the audio signals, and second-language textual transcripts of translations of the audio signals in a second language that is different than the first language; producing converted training examples by detecting and then correcting instances of gender bias in the second-language textual transcripts, the instances of gender bias having second-language transcripts having gender forms that do not match audio characteristics of associated audio signals and genders of the speakers; and training parameters of the machine-trained model, based on the converted training examples, by minimizing loss that is a combination of translation loss that expresses accuracy at which the machine-trained model produces translations, and gender loss that expresses accuracy at which the machine-trained model detects a gender.
Facts
- Company
- Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
- Official title
- Translating speech in a gender-aware manner
- Patent number
- US12737565B2
- Application number
- 18587660
- Filed
- Feb 26, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 6
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06F 40/58 Physics & computingG10L 15/22 Physics & computingG10L 2015/227 Physics & computingMore from Microsoft in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.