The Babel fish real-time translator is becoming a reality.
When Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1985, the idea of a Babel fish sitting in your ear and providing real time language translations seemed like a far-off science-fiction fantasy. Forty years later, it’s very much science fact, and AI-powered cross-language communication pioneer Timekettle has unveiled a next-gen leap forward in its technology.
There are multiple aspects to the upgrade, being shown off at the CES 2026 expo this month, but the headlines are that audio translations across the company’s product line are now more comprehensive, more accurate, and faster than ever before.
Timekettle already offered the best Babel fish-style experience for users with the W4 Interpreter Earbuds that were launched at IFA 2025 last year, but now that experience is better than ever. Whether you’re touring around a foreign city or holding talks with an international group of clients, Timekettle’s AI-powered tech redefines what’s possible when it comes to real-time language translation.The SOTA Translation Engine Selector
The first major upgrade being introduced by Timekettle is an automatic AI model picker called the SOTA (State of the Art) Translation Engine Selector. Timekettle’s systems are based on Large Language Model (LLM) AI, and with the new update in place, you’ll be seamlessly directed to the best LLM for your translation needs.
Each language has its own distinct traits in terms of grammar, sentence structure, and historical idiosyncrasies, and while putting the same LLM to work on both Spanish-to-English and Japanese-to-French can work very well, it’s possible that some of the nuance is lost along the way.
With the SOTA Translation Engine Selector in action, the specific scenario and language pair are assessed almost instantly, and the right AI language model is picked.
