Technology sector: Zoom purchases offshoot of KIT named kites

In a significant move to enhance its machine translation capabilities, video communication platform Zoom has announced the acquisition of kites GmbH, a spin-off from the renowned German university, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Founded in 2015 by CEO Sebastian Stüker and co-founder Professor Alexander Waibel, kites focuses on translating expertise into products that automatically process natural language, particularly for real-time applications. The company's primary goal is to break down language barriers and make cross-linguistic interaction a part of daily life.

Professor Waibel, who has taken on his new role at Zoom in the United States, will advise on Zoom's machine translation research and development. His work, along with Dr. Stüker, has been instrumental in automating natural and spontaneous speech using artificial intelligence methods.

KIT, one of the German universities of excellence, is part of the Helmholtz Association. With about 9,600 employees working in a broad range of disciplines, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for society and the environment. It prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs.

The Corona pandemic has highlighted the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) technologies for work and daily life. KIT scientists have been researching suitable language technologies, and the Lecture Translator developed by Waibel and Stüker has been overcoming language barriers for international students with simultaneous lecture translations at KIT since 2012.

Zoom's acquisition of kites is intended to expand the team in Karlsruhe. The company's twelve researchers will support Zoom's engineering team in the future. Stüker and the kites staff will maintain the company base in Karlsruhe, where Zoom plans to invest in expanding the team.

Moreover, Zoom is considering the establishment of an R&D center in Germany. This move is expected to further strengthen the collaboration between Zoom and KIT, bridging important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life.

The aim of kites and Zoom is to advance machine translation and provide multilingual translation capabilities to make Zoom meetings more productive and efficient for users. This collaboration is expected to make a significant impact on the global communication landscape, enabling seamless cross-linguistic interactions in real-time.

For more information about this press release, please contact Margarete Lehné at +49 721 608-41157 or [email protected].