Every time Google or Apple announces another voice-to-text feature, I feel the same thing: ugh, when is this coming for us. Voice search, dictate a text by talking, ask an assistant something out loud, all of it built around a mouth I don't use to communicate. Then last week I saw two demo videos of Google's new sign language AI, and for once my reaction was finally.
Google DeepMind just introduced SL2T, a model that translates ASL into English text. It's live now in Gboard and Live Transcribe on the new Pixel 11. Google brought out Daniel Durant, a Deaf actor, to demo the feature live on stage at the Made by Google Pixel 11 launch event. One of the two videos I watched showed him signing, and the AI caught it and turned it into text almost perfectly, right there on screen.
That's the part that got me. Not "pretty good for AI." Almost perfect.
What makes this different from older attempts is how it works. Instead of translating sign by sign, it reads the whole movement, hands, face, body, and translates it the way you'd translate any language, as a full thought. ASL isn't English spelled out with your hands, and it sounds like Google actually built this understanding in from the start.
There's a privacy piece I like too. It tracks body points on your device, not your full video. Your camera feed doesn't leave your phone.
Here's what has me most excited: I could sign to my phone the way hearing people talk to theirs. Search something, draft a text, ask Gemini a question, all by signing, no typing, no waiting for someone else's tech to catch up.
It's only on Pixel 11 right now, ASL to English for the moment. I don't have the hardware to try it myself yet. But watching those two demo videos, I felt something I don't feel often watching tech news: this one was actually built for me.
More once I get my hands on it. For now, I'm just glad Google put real investment into getting this right. You can read Google DeepMind's full announcement if you want the details straight from them.
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Part of my Blaugust run this August. No rules, no pressure, just posting for fun. |