Papercup, an AI dubbing and video translation company, announced recently that it raised $20 million in Series A funding. These are the details.
Papercup, an AI dubbing and video translation company, announced recently that it raised $20 million in Series A funding. With this round of funding, the company has now raised a total of $30.5 million.
This oversubscribed round was led by Octopus Ventures and the company had follow-on participation from Local Globe, Sands Capital, Sky and Guardian Media Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and, BDMI.
This funding round also saw new angels Des Traynor, Co-founder of Intercom, and John Collison, Co-founder of Stripe join the roster of existing investors including William Tunstall-Pedoe, founder of Evi (now Amazon’s Alexa), and Zoubin Ghahramani, Senior Research Director at Google Brain, and former Chief Scientist at Uber.
This funding round will enable Papercup with the mission of making the world’s video content watchable in any language. And the funding will help the company double down on research around expressive voices, expand into new languages, and scale our offering in markets we have proven our technology works well.
KEY QUOTES:
“Spotify has 3.2 million podcasts. Youtube 500 hours of video uploaded every minute. Discovery, 100,000 hours of documentaries. CNN 4 million video assets. The volume of video and audio produced for consumption is rising exponentially, yet, only 1% is currently dubbed into multiple languages. Papercup’s use of AI to provide affordable, high quality dubbing can unlock that content for audiences around the world and in, doing so, drive a 100 fold expansion in the video and audio translation market with Papercup at the forefront.”
— Zoe Reich, investor, Octopus Ventures
“People retain up to 70% more information when watching videos dubbed in their native language. With truly emotive cross-lingual AI dubbing, we can tackle all forms of content, making video and audio more accessible and enjoyable for everyone. This funding will allow us to double down on our promising research and break into new content categories.”
Those of you who were among the 20 million Americans to tune into Thursday night’s opening hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol and those of you who plan to continue watching will likely become familiar with a number of terms.
And if you read newspapers or pay attention to chitchat on social media from those who dispute the attack was an insurrection, you are going to hear many of the same terms but may notice differing interpretations.
So, in an effort to best prepare you to follow the hearings and ensuing conversations from talking heads, we offer up the insurrectionist’s dictionary.
Tour group.They say: The mob around and in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were tourists.
We say: Many of us have gone on tours of Washington, DC, and when I lived there, I gave plenty of them to visiting family and friends, promenading them down the Mall and around the Tidal Basin.
Things we did not do on those tours included beating Capitol Police officers with the American flag, spraying them in the face with bear spray, threatening to hang the vice president of the United States and breaking out windows and stealing statues in the Capitol. Yet, those were some of the activities of the supposed “peaceful protesters.”
Do these look like tourists to you? (Photo: Alex Kent)
Violent insurrection.They say: Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 were as bad if not worse than the Capitol attack and that protesters should be arrested.
We say: We now know the pro-Donald Trump faction plotted to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power.
The Black Lives Matter protests were not such a plot to subvert any type of transfer of power.
The Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer and Breonna Taylor by Louisville police were a response to those killings and other injustices perpetrated by police against Black Americans. And at least in Nashville, authorities did arrest protesters who set the Historic Metro Nashville Courthouse on fire: They were white.
Innocent young woman.They say: A woman killed in the Capitol by Capitol Police was trying to stop the riot.
We say: When a supporter of former President Donald Trump refers to an “innocent young woman” in context of the insurrection, they are likely talking about Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed during the attack. From that description, if you knew nothing else, you might think Babbitt was a bystander, martyred by a savage shooting.
In reality, Babbitt was a 35-year-old. Air Force veteran who was shot by a Capitol Police officer when she tried to climb through a broken window into the lobby of the U.S. House of Representatives. She did so despite being warned multiple times, as is documented through numerous reports, not to do so.
That’s not to say her death wasn’t dreadful, a tragic outcome of her brainwashing by bizarre Q-Anon stories that led her to the Capitol in January 2021.
Traitor.They say: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Jan. 6 committee Vice Chair U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and anyone who voted for Biden.
We say: An elected official who plots to retain power by any means necessary despite losing a free and fair election, exhorting a crowd to storm the Capitol, disrupt the certification of the election, and suggesting the crowd might be right in suggesting one’s vice president be hanged. Abbreviated version: Trump.
Patriot.They say: People who beat U.S. Capitol Police officers and vilify them in the process of breaking into the Capitol.
We say: U.S. Capitol Police and members of the Jan. 6 committee.
The President of the United States.They say: Donald J. Trump.
We say: No. The President is Joe Biden, who won both the popular vote and the Electoral College, the former by more than 7 million votes and the latter by 74 votes.
Note: Definitions are subject to change as the Jan. 6 committee proceeds. Please stay tuned for semantic updates to the dictionary.
Someday soon when traveling to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, understanding locals may be as easy as pulling on a pair of augmented-reality glasses. Last month, Googledemonstrated developing translation technology the company calls “subtitles for the world.” Google’s prototype spectacles project translated speech into a wearer’s field of vision in real time using AR technology.
While it’s probably a ways off before travelers will be able to secure a pair of Google’s glasses—the company hasn’t said when the product might be available—translation technology has already made some notable gains in recent years, making foreign travel more manageable. We’ve sifted through the most promising smartphone apps designed to help travelers break the language barrier.
Translating on the Go
When it comes to quick and effective translation, Google Translate is perhaps the most essential tool for travelers needing to decipher communications when they don’t speak the language in their chosen destination. Yes, social media users have poked plenty of fun at the service online for sometimes rendering awkward or inaccurate translations. (Google translates hamsterkauf, the German word for “panic buying” into “hamster purchase” in English.) However despite the occasional linguistic slips, Google Translate is a powerful tool that has matured significantly since launching in 2006.
The app, which supports 133 languages, is especially useful for travelers consistently racking up new passport stamps. “I traveled to 19 different countries and I used Google Translate in all of them,” said Isabelle Lieblein, a 22-year-old American who, while living in Europe last year, set out to visit as many countries as possible.
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Ms. Lieblein, who shares travel tips on TikTok, used Google’s camera function to translate written text like signs and restaurant menus. She also appreciated that Google Translate allows for downloading languages pre-arrival. That way, the app works offline.
Like many travelers, Ms. Lieblein said that for more complicated conversations and text, she found that a rival app called DeepL, which uses artificial intelligence, sometimes produced more refined translations than Google. Based in Germany, DeepL says its service is more than three times more accurate than its closest competitors. Basic DeepL is free but requires an internet connection to function.
Talk the Talk
Travelers eager to pick up the local language before they arrive or while they’re traveling can find dozens of available smartphone apps. The clear leader is Duolingo, a playful app which delivers bite-size lessons on an animated platform akin to popular mobile games. According to research firm Sensor Tower Inc., since 2019 Duolingo has led all other language apps world-wide in terms of revenue and downloads. Duolingo offers both a free ad-supported service and a premium ad-free version for $12.99 a month. As of 2021, the app taught 40 languages.
Rosetta Stone, a longtime purveyor of language-learning software, also has a smartphone subscription service which costs $44.99 for three months. The subscription includes a “Phrasebook” feature for travelers anxious to focus on common phrases.
“Linguado, a ‘social version’ of Duolingo, encourages language learners to connect with other users.”
Goal-oriented, gamified platforms appear to be favorites among consumers. Also ranking in Sensor Tower’s top-five are language apps Babbel, a flashcard based program with real photos, and Busuu, which includes a community feature that allows learners to befriend one another. However, users won’t be able to advance far with either app without paying. Babbel costs a minimum of $42.99 for three months. Premium access to Busuu runs from $10.99 a month.
But using your smartphone is only going to take you so far, said Alexander Max Kaplan, founder of Linguado, a newer app that encourages language learners to seek out and connect with other users by employing search criteria like location, nationality and languages of interest. “The number one way to learn a language is through immersion,” said Mr. Kaplan, calling his platform “a social version” of Duolingo that aims to help connect users interested in language exchange. “The only way you can immerse yourself in a language is with other humans,” he said.
CROW AGENCY, Mont. — Jacob Brien’s great-grandma was born in the 1930s, a time when many Native Americans were not only discouraged but punished for speaking their own languages.
Last weekend, Brien gave his great-grandmother a dictionary: A print edition of the Apsáalooke, or Crow, dictionary, featuring over 11,000 words and phrases, chronicling untold cultural significance.
It was a project he worked on firsthand.
In 2014, members of the Apsáalooke tribe formed a nonprofit called the Crow Language Consortium, and have since undertaken a number of initiatives for language revitalization, including documentation and a comprehensive dictionary, development of materials for children and online resources. Partnered with the Language Conservancy in Indiana, Brien completed an internship working on the dictionary after graduating high school. He now plans to go into linguistics.
“My great-grandma was born in 1934. She went to boarding school in South Dakota, and she told me she got so homesick because of how they were treated. She and a couple other girls tried to jump on a train to go home. One group of girls did make it on a train,” Brien said.
The girls in his grandma’s group got scared, and eventually were taken back to the school by a teacher.
“But that first group of girls, they rode on that train, and they froze to death,” Brien said.
According to the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian, families were often forced to send their children to government- or church-operated boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak their Native languages. According to a June 2021 Reuters report, at least one academic researcher contends that as many as 40,000 children may have died in or because of their poor care at U.S.-run schools.
“Even until the 1990s, Crow speakers would go to school and the teachers would still say, ‘Hey, don’t speak Crow’,” Brien said.
Today, the dictionary he worked on at age 18 will be used in language immersion coursework on the Crow Agency.
“I’m so glad they are teaching Crow language in schools,” Brien said. “I gave my grandma that dictionary, and she was so happy. She thought it was the greatest thing of all time.”
On June 3, the Crow Language Consortium at Little Big Horn College celebrated the release of the Crow Language Print Dictionary, honoring Crow elders, speakers and knowledge keepers who contributed to the creation of the text. Bob Rugh, publications director at The Language Conservancy, said the print dictionary complements other curriculum materials like an online dictionary and an eLearning Platform called Ammiláau, "our language," that will cover conversational and grammatical Crow language in an interactive manner, through lessons and exercises, over multiple levels of learning and complexity.
“We are not an English-only speaking country, and we never have been,” Rugh said. “A language has an entire culture behind it, and language and culture can’t be separated. With that comes respect. When we feel that respect, we also hopefully respect the people behind the language and culture.”
Dr. Janine Pease, D. Ed., adjunct faculty member in humanities and social science at Little Big Horn College, said the only other Crow language dictionary was published in the 1970s and had around 2,000 entries. A healthy language has around 30,000 words, and a four-year-old usually has a vocabulary of about 4,000 words, she said.
There are over 11,000 words in the new dictionary, according to Rugh.
“This dictionary has the work of a community of about 80 people, fluent speakers,” Pease said. “We had members who were born in the early 1930s, raised by their grandparents … you have to think, where that language came from. It goes back many generations. They brought us amazing knowledge.”
Today, public and private schools on the Crow Agency offer language immersion classes in both primary and secondary schools. At least half a day’s material is taught in the Crow language in what is called a dual language approach, and teachers switch which half of the day is taught in Crow from day-to-day.
“You might have mathematics or social studies in the Crow language,” Pease said. “If a child starts in pre-K and goes through third grade, they are close to fluency. They have had literally thousands of words put into conversations in all the subjects you have in school.
“Children are learning the language,” she said, adding that from 1880 to about 1950, the language was very restricted, even more so in schools.
“But our families are really strong,” she said. “We are not just surviving. We are a thriving language community. In spite of all of the assimilation efforts, our children retained their language.”
Looking up your hometown on Urban Dictionary could send you into fits of laughter. Alternatively, it might lead you to stare at your screen in disbelieving horror at the filth spoken about your flower-studded streets.
Founded in 1999, Urban Dictionary publishes unconventional definitions for words and phrases, not to be found in your ordinary Oxford Dictionary. The motto for the online dictionary is ‘define your world’.
As our world is Hertfordshire, we’ll take a look at what people are saying about the towns in this area. Do you agree with the definitions below? Let us know in the comments below!
Read more: The 'haunted' castle remains on the Herts border you can visit
Hertford
Apparently, Hertford’s tranquillity has nothing to do with opportunities for walks on the common – it’s because its residents are in a drunken daze according to one person. The definition says: "A peaceful town in the UK, despite having a drinking problem."
The town's people definitely don't have a drinking problem. What an absurd thing to claim.
Watford
If you want an evening of drinking, it seems you can head straight from Hertford to Watford. One example phrase from the Urban Dictionary for Watford is: "I am going to Watford tonight to get very drunk and try to chat up some females."
Although, if you fancy anything more interesting than chatting up the ‘females’, you might be hard-pressed to find it. Another definition calls Watford, "one of the worst places to go on a night out" and likens it to, "Birmingham quality for London prices".
Letchworth
Unsurprisingly, Letchworth.is.cool gave a glowing review of Letchworth, before throwing shade on other regions of Hertfordshire: "A cool town that beats Stevenage, Hitchin, Welwyn, Bedford, you name it. It is an amazing town filled with great people and no violence like *cough cough* Stevenage. But other people can’t wait to get out of the place."
Not won over by the fact that the UK’s first-ever roundabout is situated in the Letchworth, one person gave the example phrase: "Wow, look at that really old roundabout in Letchworth."
"Yeah, interesting isn't it Shall we get the f**k out of here now?"
"Yes, let's."
Hemel Hempstead
Marlowes Shopping Centre, Hemel Hempstead(Image: Nylah Salam)
Another site of controversy is Hemel Hempstead. One definition describes it as, "possibly the greatest town in existence" which is "home of the beautiful architectural masterpiece known as the Kodak Tower". It also provides an example phrase: "Outsider: 'I hate Hemel because I’m from *insert town devoid of all human intelligence*. Deep down I wish I could live there, but even if I did I know I’d never be worthy."
So, perhaps the person who describes it as "a s****y town full of sh***y people who all manage to believe they rule the place" is delusional, and actually wishes they lived in Hemel.
Bishop's Stortford
Bishop's Stortford has unfairly been labelled a "sh*****e" in two definitions on the Urban Dictionary. We'd argue this is definitely not the case, and we're very proud of Bishop's Stortford.
One of these definitions goes on to describe: "A market town that in recent years has become infested with chavs and roadmen and wannabe gangstas."
Cheshunt
It seems Cheshunt has an even more diverse population than Bishop’s Stortford’s "chavs and roadmen and wannabe gangstas", according to one entry. One definition depicts "a place full of chavs and sl*gs and bears".
Not everyone agrees with this wild description, however. One person says: "Cheshunt is a beautiful, quiet and peaceful area where everyone knows each other and respects each other! It is such an elegant area where Queen’s English is spoken." That's more like it.
Berkhamsted
Apparently, Berkhamsted is a town with two halves - "thieving crack heads are commonplace in this town, as much as the middle class newly-weds try to ignore them".
This definition also points to residents’ contrasting characters: "Upper classes know not to venture to Tesco Metro on Friday nights, due to the thieving youths hanging around the outside of the supermarket." They even gave an example conversation to demonstrate this point:
“Darling, we've run out of poached salmon, and Marks and Sparks is shut. Shall we go to Tescos?"
“Don't be ridiculous, you know what Berkhamsted is like on a Friday night. We'd be skinned alive!”
We'd actually argue Berkhamsted is one of the nicest areas of Hertfordshire and this certainly isn't the case.
Stevenage
The only definition of Stevenage conjures up Breaking Bad’s Jessie Pinkman and his drug-dealing mates: "This is where you live if you think you are hard. The boys are wannabe potheads and drug lords but really they wouldn’t survive anywhere outside of Stevenage because they are all skinny b*****ds."
Hatfield
Coming from Hatfield, on the other hand, appears to be something to aspire to: "Any Hatfield is all-around awesome. A Hatfield will blow you away." They also added an example conversation on how to use 'Hatfield' in a sentence:
Person 1: "Damn, here comes a Hatfield!" Person 2: "Wow, I wish I was born a Hatfield."
We aren't 100 per cent convinced they're talking about Hatfield here in Hertfordshire. Another hilarious definition of Hatfield on the Urban Dictionary reads: "To perform a scene in the nude, regardless of whether the script calls for it or not."
Hitchin
The one definition listed for Hitchin is oddly heart-warming, as if the town resembles the annoying little brother you love to hate: "A town in England that’s kinda a hole but it’s alright."
Hmm, we'll take it... We think...
Harpenden
Harpenden town centre
Two accounts describe Harpenden as the ‘most amazing place’, but these are countered passionately by another: "Uber-snobby, white middle-class ghetto, which geographically lies between Luton & St. Albans. Their houses are full of ';Harpenden Chic' tat, which they will have paid over the odds to acquire. Harpenden shops are mainly independent and full of over-priced, tasteless wares, which local Harpies aspire to buy from."
The example phrase they included said: "Must go to, ‘Harpenden Village!’. I have a vast surplus of disposable income to lose. I do object to having to pay to park, though!"
Hoddesdon
Wikipedia will inform you of the array of shops, the gym and the leisure centre in Hoddesdon, but these don’t make their way into Urban Dictionary. Instead, the one definition listed describes: "A grey and dull town where you have to walk 30 minutes from the town centre with nothing to do in it, to get to the train station so that you can leave. Good luck getting there, though, because all the roadmen will ride their mopeds or bikes along the road, going head-on into traffic."
Broxbourne
After the above definition, you’d be forgiven for thinking Hoddesdon meets the criteria for ‘deadest and emptiest town in Hertfordshire’, but this is actually the accolade given to Broxbourne by one person. They also provide this example phrase:
Guy 1: "Ahh man ma girl moved to Broxbourne."
Guy 2: "Broxbourne … where the heck is that??"
Guy 1: "I wish I knew."
St Albans
The informative definition included for St Albans would be more at home in the Oxford Dictionary, but at least the example phrase is more suited to the site: "A city ten miles outside North London, England, where all the other St. Albans got their name from due to English colonisation on other continents."
Back in the day, the Urban Dictionary would have provided many of us with countless laughs during school hours thanks to its hilarious and savage definitions. If you've not heard of it before, it's an alternative dictionary that many people refer to as a point of reference for more unusual words or "slang".
It has been going since 1999 and will have led to many of us wasting hours upon hours searching for different words, places and even our own names. As the definitions are submitted by visitors to the website, there are some interesting definitions that often are filled with swear words and other crude language.
Here at BedfordshireLive, we were very interested to see what people had written for our own beloved towns. We took a look at definitions for Luton, Bedford, Dunstable and several others.
Read more: The IT Crowd actor you never knew was from Bedfordshire
Here is a selection of definitions for Bedfordshire locations. What do you make of the below defintions? Let us know in the comments below!
Luton
Luton is known for many things - The Hatters, London Luton Airport and the Luton International Carnival. But residents in Luton have their own ideas as to how they would describe the town.
One definition from the Urban Dictionary said: "Okay, so we all know Luton isn't perfect. Infact, we all know its no where near that. But I challenge you to find a town that is anywhere near as culturally diverse as Luton is. Its mix of races and cultures make it exciting and revolutionary- to expect a town to be full of white people is so old fashioned and ignorant.
"The wide range of religion and races make it a fantastic place to grow up- it makes you more accepting of everyone. So if you sl*g Luton off because you think Lutonians are 'stupid', take a look in the mirror, because it is ridiculous to suggest a town is uneducated just because of what it looks like."
Another definition reads: "Luton is a town 30 miles from London, where from within is an urban jungle. Despite its bad name, it is actually the most multicultural town in the UK, often busy with trade and culture.
"Yeah it is the outcome of huge change and people but is a place of tongues, beliefs, religion and diversity. The streets have a sense of ownership of the people the street credibility is high as people are educated, foremost knowing the sense of what's real. Music may be of cultural critique but movements are happening, and being on the edge of London it's a hub of talent."
These definitions are exactly why we're proud to call Luton one of our towns.
Dunstable
Dunstable isn't known for much, compared to Luton. Apart from being a market town and the places it's twinned with, there isn't any standout, noteworthy definitions to describe the town.
However, there are some bizarre definitions for Dunstable. One reads: "A dunce. From the town of the same name in Bedfordshire, England."
While another reads "A person who thinks rice doesn’t go with milk, basically not knowing how to make rice pudding." I don't know either.
Flitwick
Many struggle to describe Flitwick. Many will say it's a commuter town, and others may just think it's just a roundabout and some shops.
But the Urban Dictionary has other ideas. In the only entry for Flitwick, it reads: "A town in Bedfordshire, England, next to the well known historic market town, Ampthill. Flitwick is home to the country's most expensive Tesco. It also has a large council estate and many chavs. It is likely most people have never, and will never go there in their lifetime."
I would think people in Flitwick would have something to say about that description.
Biggleswade
Situated on the A1, and sat on the border with Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, Biggleswade is one of Bedfordshire's historic towns. The Urban Dictionary has suggestions for what the town could be well-known for.
One definition reads: "Town whose claim to fame is the invention of the bicycle, but now is the scene of mass gathering of 14-year-old chavs drinking in the town centre which has become an alcohol-free zone. Also an epicentre for cars being ruined i.e. Corsas 106s etc etc."
