Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Good for Business, Latvia, Technology

To reach the goal of an EU Presidency without language barriers, the translation tool uses AI-powered Neural Machine Translation (Neural MT) and the CEF eTranslation platform to provide secure, instant translations of texts, documents, and websites. By utilizing AI-based machine learning, Neural MT provides highly fluent, almost humanlike translations. At the Summit, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni attended demonstrations of the AI-powered translation tool in action.

The EU Council Presidency in Estonia is the first to use the groundbreaking new tool, which also features the world's very first Neural MT systems for Estonian. In addition to heads of state, delegates, and journalists, the tool's users include Estonian public sector translators and staff members at the EU Council Presidency secretariat.

"The EU Council Presidency Translator is perfect proof that breakthroughs in AI and machine learning can be successfully used in real-world applications. The tool also shows that AI enables us to develop technology that surpasses Google in translation quality," says Andrejs Vasiljevs, the CEO of Tilde. "We are honored that the EU Council Presidency in Estonia is a pioneer in the use of AI-powered translation to cross language barriers."

The Presidency of the Council of the EU rotates among the EU member states every 6 months, helping to ensure the continuity of the EU's work. Following the Estonian EU Council Presidency, the AI-powered translation tool will be passed on to Bulgaria and Austria in 2018.

The Tallinn Digital Summit brought together EU heads of state and government in the capital of Estonia to discuss the steps needed to enable people, enterprises and governments to fully tap into the potential of innovative technologies and digitalisation.

The EU Council Presidency Translator is developed by Tilde, a leading European language technology company based in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius, with support from the CEF Digital programme. In addition to building cutting-edge technology using AI, Tilde helps the EU to craft multilingual policy by providing input on the current state of language technology innovation.