#184 Spotify Adds Voice Translation, ALC Recap, Straker Buyback

Florian and Esther discuss the language industry news of the week, where Spotify launched AI-powered voice translation for podcast creators.Esther gives a recap of the ALC 21st Annual Summit in Portland, where she presented key findings from the 2023 ALC Survey.The duo discussed the addition of Basque, Catalan, and Galician as official languages in the Spanish Congress. However, Spain's efforts to make these languages official at the European Union level were put on hold.In the UK, a language services tender worth potentially GBP 400 million was announced, primarily focused on interpreting services for healthcare and other public sector entities.The board of language service provider Straker announced a share buyback, stating that their current share price doesn't reflect the company's value, intending to repurchase up to 3.5 million shares.Writer, Inc., an AI-based writing assistance tool, raised a significant USD 100 million in its Series B funding round, capitalizing on the growing interest in this emerging category.Google made subtle changes in its ranking guidelines for AI-generated content, shifting from "written by people for people" to "helpful content created for people."