The problem is that we still haven't been able to write a system to accurately recognize the words that are being spoken. Differences in diction, dialects, and

The problem is that we still haven't been able to write a system to accurately recognize the words that are being spoken. Differences in diction, dialects, and accents make it difficult to accomplish. Just look at what Microsoft, Google, and Apple are doing - as good as they are, they're nowhere close to where they need to be. Even once we solve the voice capture issue, I suspect that we'd still run into many areas where the computer would have problems determining the proper context necessary to accurately translate the text. Whatever system is performing the translation would have to maintain a history of the conversation in order to have any hope of understanding context, and at a gathering where you could have multiple conversations occurring at the same time, the process gets even harder. I think the only part of the author's belief that we're close to achieving is being able to have the computer use the original speaker's voice. Siri and Cortana could already sound more human, but people are currently more comfortable having them sound robotic. I'm sure that will change in time, however.