SimulSeamless: FBK at IWSLT 2024 Simultaneous Speech Translation

Sara Papi, Marco Gaido, Matteo Negri, Luisa Bentivogli·June 20, 2024

Summary

FBK's SimulSeamless is a competitive entry in the IWSLT 2024 Simultaneous Speech Translation campaign. It combines AlignAtt and SeamlessM4T, a large multilingual and multimodal model, without retraining. The model supports multiple language pairs and achieves strong results, demonstrating the effectiveness of using pre-trained models like SeamlessM4T for simultaneous translation. SimulSeamless, with over 143 source and 200 target languages, outperforms previous years' participants, especially in English-to-Japanese, while maintaining a good quality-latency trade-off. The study highlights the growing interest in leveraging off-the-shelf models and the importance of adapting existing strategies for simultaneous translation. Research from the IWSLT and Interspeech conferences showcases advancements in speech translation, including improvements in model architectures, latency, and modality adaptation.

Key findings

4

Paper digest

What problem does the paper attempt to solve? Is this a new problem?

The paper aims to address the challenge of Simultaneous Translation, specifically focusing on Simultaneous Speech Translation (SimulST) . This paper explores the integration of different models and strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SimulST systems . While the interest in SimulST has been increasing, the paper contributes by discussing the use of large models and the repurposing of standard models for SimulST tasks . The approach of repurposing standard models for SimulST, particularly using AlignAtt, has emerged as a promising strategy to improve the state-of-the-art results in SimulST . This paper's focus on optimizing SimulST systems with various models and strategies reflects a continuous effort to advance the field of simultaneous translation, making it a relevant and evolving area of research .


What scientific hypothesis does this paper seek to validate?

This paper aims to validate the hypothesis that SimulSeamless can achieve acceptable or superior results compared to previous participants in the SimulST Evaluation Campaign without the need for retraining or adaptation, making it a generic and potentially applicable model for all translation directions supported by the underlying SeamlessM4T model .


What new ideas, methods, or models does the paper propose? What are the characteristics and advantages compared to previous methods?

The paper proposes several innovative ideas, methods, and models in the field of simultaneous speech translation:

  • AlignAtt: The paper introduces AlignAtt, a method that utilizes attention-based audio-translation alignments to guide simultaneous speech translation, achieving state-of-the-art results .
  • Elimination of Hyper-parameters: AlignAtt simplifies the previous EDAtt policy by eliminating the dependency on additional hyper-parameters while maintaining competitive performance .
  • Repurposing Standard Models: The paper discusses the repurposing of standard (offline) speech translation models for simultaneous translation tasks, with AlignAtt emerging as a successful approach .
  • Use of Large Models: There is a trend towards using large models, including speech foundation models and large language models, either alone or in combination, for speech translation tasks .
  • SeamlessM4T Model: The SeamlessM4T model is highlighted as a promising multimodal and multilingual model, covering a wide range of source and target languages .
  • Combining Approaches: The paper suggests combining different approaches to enhance simultaneous translation performance, aiming to leverage the strengths of various methods . The paper introduces several characteristics and advantages of the proposed method, AlignAtt, compared to previous methods in simultaneous speech translation:
  • Elimination of Hyper-parameters: AlignAtt simplifies the previous EDAtt policy by removing the need for additional hyper-parameters, leading to a more streamlined approach while maintaining competitive performance .
  • Repurposing Standard Models: AlignAtt repurposes standard (offline) speech translation models for simultaneous translation tasks, demonstrating that using models without ad-hoc training for the simultaneous scenario can yield competitive or even superior results compared to systems specifically tailored for SimulST .
  • Innovative Approach: AlignAtt leverages attention-based audio-translation alignments to guide simultaneous inference, overcoming limitations of previous methods that relied solely on attention mechanisms .
  • Use of Large Models: The method incorporates the use of large models, including speech foundation models and large language models, either individually or in combination, reflecting a trend towards leveraging the capabilities of these models for speech translation tasks .
  • SeamlessM4T Model: The SeamlessM4T model, utilized in conjunction with AlignAtt, emerges as a promising multimodal and multilingual model, covering a wide range of source and target languages, enhancing the versatility and scope of the simultaneous translation system .
  • Performance Optimization: The paper proposes combining the strengths of AlignAtt and SeamlessM4T to achieve acceptable or superior results compared to previous participants in the SimulST Evaluation Campaign, showcasing the effectiveness and generic applicability of the proposed method .

Do any related researches exist? Who are the noteworthy researchers on this topic in this field?What is the key to the solution mentioned in the paper?

Several related research papers exist in the field of simultaneous speech translation. Noteworthy researchers in this area include Yasumasa Kano, Katsuhito Sudoh, Satoshi Nakamura, Siddique Latif, Moazzam Shoukat, Heriberto Cuayáhuitl, Björn W Schuller, Danni Liu, Gerasimos Spanakis, Jan Niehues, Mingbo Ma, Liang Huang, and many others .

The key to the solution mentioned in the paper involves the use of AlignAtt, which is a strategy that exploits speech-translation alignments based on cross-attention scores to guide simultaneous inference. This approach overcomes the limitations of previous methods that relied solely on attention mechanisms, leading to new state-of-the-art results in simultaneous speech translation .


How were the experiments in the paper designed?

The experiments in the paper were designed to evaluate FBK's system for participation in the IWSLT 2024 Evaluation Campaigns in Simultaneous Translation, specifically focusing on the speech-to-text sub-track (SimulST) . The system utilized the SeamlessM4T model for direct speech translation, repurposed for the simultaneous scenario through AlignAtt, a SimulST policy that leverages cross-attention scores to guide simultaneous inference without further modification or adaptation of the underlying model . The experiments aimed to achieve acceptable or superior results compared to previous participants in the Evaluation Campaign, covering translation pairs such as English to German, Japanese, and Chinese, and Czech to English . The system was designed to support all translation pairs of the Evaluation Campaign and potentially cover more than 143 source languages and 200 target languages .


What is the dataset used for quantitative evaluation? Is the code open source?

The dataset used for quantitative evaluation in the SimulSeamless system is the MuST-C v2.0 tst-COMMON for certain language pairs like English to German, Japanese, and Chinese, and the IWSLT 2024 dev set for Czech to English . The code for the SeamlessM4T model used in the system is open source and can be accessed through the Hugging Face website .


Do the experiments and results in the paper provide good support for the scientific hypotheses that need to be verified? Please analyze.

The experiments and results presented in the paper provide strong support for the scientific hypotheses that needed verification. The study introduces SimulSeamless, a system designed for the IWSLT 2024 Evaluation Campaign on Simultaneous Translation, which combines the SeamlessM4T model with AlignAtt for simultaneous speech translation . The results show that SimulSeamless achieves acceptable or even superior performance compared to previous participants in the SimulST Evaluation Campaign, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach . Additionally, the study highlights the use of large models, including SeamlessM4T, which covers a wide range of source and target languages, indicating the scalability and versatility of the model . The incorporation of AlignAtt as a SimulST policy further enhances the simultaneous inference process, leading to state-of-the-art results . Overall, the experiments and results in the paper provide robust evidence supporting the efficacy of SimulSeamless and the underlying models for simultaneous speech translation tasks.


What are the contributions of this paper?

The paper makes several contributions, including proposing a combination of the best approaches for simultaneous translation in the IWSLT Evaluation Campaign . It also introduces the concept of Average Token Delay as a latency metric for simultaneous translation . Additionally, the paper discusses the use of low-latency sequence-to-sequence speech recognition and translation through partial hypothesis selection . Furthermore, it presents a system for simultaneous speech translation and automatic subtitling .


What work can be continued in depth?

To delve deeper into the field of simultaneous speech translation, further exploration can be conducted on the following aspects:

  • Repurposing Standard Models for SimulST: Investigating the effectiveness of repurposing standard speech translation models for simultaneous scenarios, particularly focusing on the AlignAtt approach that utilizes speech-translation alignments based on cross-attention scores .
  • Utilization of Large Models: Exploring the impact and potential of using large models, including speech foundation models in combination with large language models, for generic speech translation tasks, with models like SeamlessM4T showing promise in covering a wide range of languages .
  • Latency Metrics and Techniques: Researching latency metrics such as Average Token Delay for simultaneous translation and techniques like Efficient Monotonic Multihead Attention to enhance the efficiency and performance of simultaneous translation systems .
  • Innovative Approaches: Studying novel approaches like Alignatt, which leverages attention-based audio-translation alignments to guide simultaneous speech translation, and investigating how attention mechanisms can further improve simultaneous translation quality .
  • Evaluation and Comparison Studies: Conducting comprehensive evaluation studies to compare different simultaneous translation models, techniques, and approaches to identify the most effective strategies for achieving high-quality simultaneous speech translation results .

Tables

1
Basic info
papers
computation and language
sound
audio and speech processing
artificial intelligence
Advanced features
Insights
How does SimulSeamless combine AlignAtt and SeamlessM4T for simultaneous speech translation?
What is the primary focus of FBK's SimulSeamless in the IWSLT 2024 campaign?
Which language pairs does the SimulSeamless model support, and what is its performance compared to previous years?
What is the significance of SimulSeamless's strong results in English-to-Japanese translation, and how does it balance quality and latency?

SimulSeamless: FBK at IWSLT 2024 Simultaneous Speech Translation

Sara Papi, Marco Gaido, Matteo Negri, Luisa Bentivogli·June 20, 2024

Summary

FBK's SimulSeamless is a competitive entry in the IWSLT 2024 Simultaneous Speech Translation campaign. It combines AlignAtt and SeamlessM4T, a large multilingual and multimodal model, without retraining. The model supports multiple language pairs and achieves strong results, demonstrating the effectiveness of using pre-trained models like SeamlessM4T for simultaneous translation. SimulSeamless, with over 143 source and 200 target languages, outperforms previous years' participants, especially in English-to-Japanese, while maintaining a good quality-latency trade-off. The study highlights the growing interest in leveraging off-the-shelf models and the importance of adapting existing strategies for simultaneous translation. Research from the IWSLT and Interspeech conferences showcases advancements in speech translation, including improvements in model architectures, latency, and modality adaptation.
Mind map
SeamlessM4T
AlignAtt Integration
Latency Analysis
Quality Metrics
Performance Comparison
Data Preprocessing
Data Collection
Model Architecture
Objective
Background
Conclusion
Current Research Trends
Results and Evaluation
Methodology
Introduction
Key findings
4

Paper digest

What problem does the paper attempt to solve? Is this a new problem?

The paper aims to address the challenge of Simultaneous Translation, specifically focusing on Simultaneous Speech Translation (SimulST) . This paper explores the integration of different models and strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SimulST systems . While the interest in SimulST has been increasing, the paper contributes by discussing the use of large models and the repurposing of standard models for SimulST tasks . The approach of repurposing standard models for SimulST, particularly using AlignAtt, has emerged as a promising strategy to improve the state-of-the-art results in SimulST . This paper's focus on optimizing SimulST systems with various models and strategies reflects a continuous effort to advance the field of simultaneous translation, making it a relevant and evolving area of research .


What scientific hypothesis does this paper seek to validate?

This paper aims to validate the hypothesis that SimulSeamless can achieve acceptable or superior results compared to previous participants in the SimulST Evaluation Campaign without the need for retraining or adaptation, making it a generic and potentially applicable model for all translation directions supported by the underlying SeamlessM4T model .


What new ideas, methods, or models does the paper propose? What are the characteristics and advantages compared to previous methods?

The paper proposes several innovative ideas, methods, and models in the field of simultaneous speech translation:

  • AlignAtt: The paper introduces AlignAtt, a method that utilizes attention-based audio-translation alignments to guide simultaneous speech translation, achieving state-of-the-art results .
  • Elimination of Hyper-parameters: AlignAtt simplifies the previous EDAtt policy by eliminating the dependency on additional hyper-parameters while maintaining competitive performance .
  • Repurposing Standard Models: The paper discusses the repurposing of standard (offline) speech translation models for simultaneous translation tasks, with AlignAtt emerging as a successful approach .
  • Use of Large Models: There is a trend towards using large models, including speech foundation models and large language models, either alone or in combination, for speech translation tasks .
  • SeamlessM4T Model: The SeamlessM4T model is highlighted as a promising multimodal and multilingual model, covering a wide range of source and target languages .
  • Combining Approaches: The paper suggests combining different approaches to enhance simultaneous translation performance, aiming to leverage the strengths of various methods . The paper introduces several characteristics and advantages of the proposed method, AlignAtt, compared to previous methods in simultaneous speech translation:
  • Elimination of Hyper-parameters: AlignAtt simplifies the previous EDAtt policy by removing the need for additional hyper-parameters, leading to a more streamlined approach while maintaining competitive performance .
  • Repurposing Standard Models: AlignAtt repurposes standard (offline) speech translation models for simultaneous translation tasks, demonstrating that using models without ad-hoc training for the simultaneous scenario can yield competitive or even superior results compared to systems specifically tailored for SimulST .
  • Innovative Approach: AlignAtt leverages attention-based audio-translation alignments to guide simultaneous inference, overcoming limitations of previous methods that relied solely on attention mechanisms .
  • Use of Large Models: The method incorporates the use of large models, including speech foundation models and large language models, either individually or in combination, reflecting a trend towards leveraging the capabilities of these models for speech translation tasks .
  • SeamlessM4T Model: The SeamlessM4T model, utilized in conjunction with AlignAtt, emerges as a promising multimodal and multilingual model, covering a wide range of source and target languages, enhancing the versatility and scope of the simultaneous translation system .
  • Performance Optimization: The paper proposes combining the strengths of AlignAtt and SeamlessM4T to achieve acceptable or superior results compared to previous participants in the SimulST Evaluation Campaign, showcasing the effectiveness and generic applicability of the proposed method .

Do any related researches exist? Who are the noteworthy researchers on this topic in this field?What is the key to the solution mentioned in the paper?

Several related research papers exist in the field of simultaneous speech translation. Noteworthy researchers in this area include Yasumasa Kano, Katsuhito Sudoh, Satoshi Nakamura, Siddique Latif, Moazzam Shoukat, Heriberto Cuayáhuitl, Björn W Schuller, Danni Liu, Gerasimos Spanakis, Jan Niehues, Mingbo Ma, Liang Huang, and many others .

The key to the solution mentioned in the paper involves the use of AlignAtt, which is a strategy that exploits speech-translation alignments based on cross-attention scores to guide simultaneous inference. This approach overcomes the limitations of previous methods that relied solely on attention mechanisms, leading to new state-of-the-art results in simultaneous speech translation .


How were the experiments in the paper designed?

The experiments in the paper were designed to evaluate FBK's system for participation in the IWSLT 2024 Evaluation Campaigns in Simultaneous Translation, specifically focusing on the speech-to-text sub-track (SimulST) . The system utilized the SeamlessM4T model for direct speech translation, repurposed for the simultaneous scenario through AlignAtt, a SimulST policy that leverages cross-attention scores to guide simultaneous inference without further modification or adaptation of the underlying model . The experiments aimed to achieve acceptable or superior results compared to previous participants in the Evaluation Campaign, covering translation pairs such as English to German, Japanese, and Chinese, and Czech to English . The system was designed to support all translation pairs of the Evaluation Campaign and potentially cover more than 143 source languages and 200 target languages .


What is the dataset used for quantitative evaluation? Is the code open source?

The dataset used for quantitative evaluation in the SimulSeamless system is the MuST-C v2.0 tst-COMMON for certain language pairs like English to German, Japanese, and Chinese, and the IWSLT 2024 dev set for Czech to English . The code for the SeamlessM4T model used in the system is open source and can be accessed through the Hugging Face website .


Do the experiments and results in the paper provide good support for the scientific hypotheses that need to be verified? Please analyze.

The experiments and results presented in the paper provide strong support for the scientific hypotheses that needed verification. The study introduces SimulSeamless, a system designed for the IWSLT 2024 Evaluation Campaign on Simultaneous Translation, which combines the SeamlessM4T model with AlignAtt for simultaneous speech translation . The results show that SimulSeamless achieves acceptable or even superior performance compared to previous participants in the SimulST Evaluation Campaign, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach . Additionally, the study highlights the use of large models, including SeamlessM4T, which covers a wide range of source and target languages, indicating the scalability and versatility of the model . The incorporation of AlignAtt as a SimulST policy further enhances the simultaneous inference process, leading to state-of-the-art results . Overall, the experiments and results in the paper provide robust evidence supporting the efficacy of SimulSeamless and the underlying models for simultaneous speech translation tasks.


What are the contributions of this paper?

The paper makes several contributions, including proposing a combination of the best approaches for simultaneous translation in the IWSLT Evaluation Campaign . It also introduces the concept of Average Token Delay as a latency metric for simultaneous translation . Additionally, the paper discusses the use of low-latency sequence-to-sequence speech recognition and translation through partial hypothesis selection . Furthermore, it presents a system for simultaneous speech translation and automatic subtitling .


What work can be continued in depth?

To delve deeper into the field of simultaneous speech translation, further exploration can be conducted on the following aspects:

  • Repurposing Standard Models for SimulST: Investigating the effectiveness of repurposing standard speech translation models for simultaneous scenarios, particularly focusing on the AlignAtt approach that utilizes speech-translation alignments based on cross-attention scores .
  • Utilization of Large Models: Exploring the impact and potential of using large models, including speech foundation models in combination with large language models, for generic speech translation tasks, with models like SeamlessM4T showing promise in covering a wide range of languages .
  • Latency Metrics and Techniques: Researching latency metrics such as Average Token Delay for simultaneous translation and techniques like Efficient Monotonic Multihead Attention to enhance the efficiency and performance of simultaneous translation systems .
  • Innovative Approaches: Studying novel approaches like Alignatt, which leverages attention-based audio-translation alignments to guide simultaneous speech translation, and investigating how attention mechanisms can further improve simultaneous translation quality .
  • Evaluation and Comparison Studies: Conducting comprehensive evaluation studies to compare different simultaneous translation models, techniques, and approaches to identify the most effective strategies for achieving high-quality simultaneous speech translation results .
Tables
1
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