Meta Omnilingual ASR named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2026

Jean Maillard: Jean Maillard serves as a lead researcher on Meta's Omnilingual ASR project. He has publicly emphasized the importance of developing technology that supports the broadest possible range of languages worldwide. His contributions center on advancing models that enable speech recognition in languages previously underserved by AI systems. Richard Eisenberg: Richard Eisenberg authored the piece announcing Meta Omnilingual ASR as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026. He provides detailed context on the project's goals for universal transcription and its real-world deployment in sectors like healthcare. Meta Omnilingual Automatic Speech Recognition: Meta Omnilingual Automatic Speech Recognition is a suite of open-source models developed by Meta to deliver automatic speech recognition capabilities across an extensive array of languages. The project focuses on extending high-quality transcription to languages with limited prior coverage in existing systems. It has been recognized as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 and is already supporting practical applications such as improved patient care in Nigerian community clinics. Application: Nigerian health practitioners are using the technology to improve patient care in community clinics. Integration: The ASR system works alongside Meta's Omnilingual Machine Translation system to support cross-language translation of transcripts. Recognition: Meta Omnilingual ASR was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026.