IP Library Granted Patent US 12664974
Granted Patent B2
US 12664974 · App. 17/859,957 · Granted Jun 23, 2026

Training speech processing models using pseudo tokens

Inventors: Felix Wu (Ithaca, NY); Kwangyoun Kim (Santa Clara, CA); Ryan Thomas McDonald (London, GB); Kilian Quirin Weinberger (Ithaca, NY); Kyu Jeong Han (Pleasanton, CA); Yoav Artzi (New York, NY)
Assignee: ASAPP, INC.
G10L15/063G06N3/045G10L15/16G10L15/22G10L15/30
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12664974
App. No.
17/859,957
Granted
Jun 23, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

A speech processing model may be trained using pseudo tokens. Training a speech processing model with pseudo tokens may allow for training with a smaller amount of labeled training data and accordingly lower costs. A set of pseudo tokens may be determined by computing feature vectors from unlabeled training data, clustering the feature vectors, and performing token compression using the clustered feature vectors. A first speech processing model may be trained using unlabeled training data by determining sequences of pseudo tokens corresponding to the unlabeled training data. A second speech processing model may be initialized using the first speech processing model and then trained using labeled training data. The second speech processing model may then be deployed to a speech processing application.

Claims (58)

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:

obtaining a first training corpus of first training samples, wherein the first training samples are unlabeled;

computing feature vectors from the first training samples;

determining a set of pseudo tokens from the feature vectors by:

clustering at least a portion of the feature vectors into a plurality of clusters,

assigning a cluster-token to each cluster of the plurality of clusters,

determining a plurality of cluster-token sequences using the plurality of clusters, and

determining the set of pseudo tokens by performing token compression on the plurality of cluster-token sequences;

determining a plurality of pseudo-token sequences using the feature vectors and the set of pseudo tokens;

training a first neural network using the first training samples and the plurality of pseudo-token sequences;

obtaining a second training corpus of second training samples, wherein the second training corpus is labeled;

training a second neural network using the second training corpus, wherein at least a portion of the second neural network is initialized using the first neural network; and

deploying the second neural network to a production system.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein clustering the feature vectors comprises using k-means clustering.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , comprising performing a deduplication operation on the plurality of cluster-token sequences.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein performing token compression comprises performing token compression using byte-pair encoding.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein performing token compression comprises performing token compression using subword regularization.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first neural network comprises a first encoder and a first decoder.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first neural network comprises a transducer neural network.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the transducer neural network comprises a joint network.

9 . A system, comprising at least one server computer comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one server computer configured to:

obtain a first training corpus of first training samples, wherein the first training samples are unlabeled;

compute feature vectors from the first training samples;

determine a set of pseudo tokens from the feature vectors by:

clustering at least a portion of the feature vectors into a plurality of clusters,

assigning a cluster-token to each cluster of the plurality of clusters,

determining a plurality of cluster-token sequences using the plurality of clusters, and

determining the set of pseudo tokens by performing token compression on the plurality of cluster-token sequences;

determine a plurality of pseudo-token sequences using the feature vectors and the set of pseudo tokens;

train a first neural network using the first training samples and the plurality of pseudo-token sequences;

obtain a second training corpus of second training samples, wherein the second training corpus is labeled;

train a second neural network using the second training corpus, wherein at least a portion of the second neural network is initialized using the first neural network; and

deploy the second neural network to a production system.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the first neural network comprises a first encoder and a first decoder.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein:

a second encoder of the second neural network is initialized using the first encoder of the first neural network; and

a second decoder of the second neural network is initialized using the first decoder of the first neural network.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the first encoder comprises a transformer encoder and the first decoder comprises a transformer decoder.

13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the first encoder comprises a recurrent neural network.

14 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the first encoder comprises a convolutional neural network.

15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one server computer is configured to compute the feature vectors by performing average pooling.

16 . One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform actions comprising:

obtaining a first training corpus of first training samples, wherein the first training samples are unlabeled;

computing feature vectors from the first training samples;

determining a set of pseudo tokens from the feature vectors by:

clustering at least a portion of the feature vectors into a plurality of clusters,

assigning a cluster-token to each cluster of the plurality of clusters,

determining a plurality of cluster-token sequences using the plurality of clusters, and

determining the set of pseudo tokens by performing token compression on the plurality of cluster-token sequences;

determining a plurality of pseudo-token sequences using the feature vectors and the set of pseudo tokens;

training a first neural network using the first training samples and the plurality of pseudo-token sequences;

obtaining a second training corpus of second training samples, wherein the second training corpus is labeled;

training a second neural network using the second training corpus, wherein at least a portion of the second neural network is initialized using the first neural network; and

deploying the second neural network to a production system.

17 . The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the first neural network comprises a first encoder and a first decoder.

18 . The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the second training corpus is labeled with text corresponding to the second training samples and the production system performs speech recognition.

19 . The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein training the first neural network comprises optimizing a connectionist temporal classification objective function.

20 . The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein a portion of the second neural network is initialized with random values.