Roblox, the popular online gaming platform, has developed an innovative AI-powered translation model that enables players to communicate through text in real time, even if they speak different languages. According to Roblox’s chief technology officer, Dan Sturman, this new system required the company to create its own large language model (LLM) in order to translate text-based messages with a base latency of just 100 milliseconds, providing users with an instantaneous conversation experience.
Sturman highlighted the scenario where players discover that their new Roblox friend, whom they have been chatting and joking with, is actually from Korea and has been typing in Korean the whole time, while the other person has been typing in English, without either of them realizing it.
To develop the “unified translation model,” Roblox faced two major challenges. The first was designing a system that could independently translate among all 16 supported languages. The second challenge was making the translation process fast enough to support real-time chats. Overcoming these obstacles required Roblox to take a unique approach and build its own LLM.
The AI translator began with the creation of a transformer-based LLM by Roblox, which was trained on both public and private data. Next, the LLM was handed over to a mix of expert translation apps, which trained the model on each individual language. For translation pairs that were less common, such as French to Thai, Roblox used a method called “back translation,” where messages were translated back into the original language and then compared with the source text for accuracy.
To ensure that the translations were of high quality, Roblox implemented a quality estimation model that focused on the understandability of the translation. Additionally, the model was trained to understand human slang by involving human evaluators in translating popular and trending terms for each language. This process is ongoing, with evaluators constantly updating the system to keep up with the latest phrases.
During the final testing phase, Roblox found that the new translation system led to stronger engagement and session quality for its users. Currently, Roblox has 70 million daily active users from over 180 countries, with more than 2.4 billion messages exchanged on a daily basis.
Looking ahead, Roblox CEO David Baszucki has expressed his vision of interoperability in the metaverse, where users can freely move nonfungible tokens and other digital assets between multiple independent platforms.