Rotating in the microwave

1. Translation

Of course, this is a translation app, so let's first examine what's being promised to us on the official website:

"Your Personal Travel Buddy": Dababel can be used while on global vacations

"Compatible With Most Devices": Smooth syncing between phone, laptop, computer

"Human Moments, Real Connections": Real-time conversations with anyone, anywhere

"Celebrate Every Culture, Live Every Story": Dababel lets you experience global cultures and languages

"Grow Your Brand Globally As A Creator": Real-time translation allows you to grow as a creator and reach new audiences

"Your Voice Is Yours Only": "The uniqueness of your voice is yours only. Your voice will never be used to train any AI models."

This last bullet point is what I would like to highlight, because it brings up interesting questions in regards to the app's actual translation features.

Because I am unwilling to pay to try the app out for myself, I will be using the website's "app showcase" as well as the video on Quackity's channel showing the app off.

Here is a screenshot of the desktop version of the software:

And here is the phone version:

Now, the way the program seems to work is unlike traditional translation software such as the infamous Google Translate. While those translate written text and text from images, Dababel seems to be unique in that is translates the spoken word.

This, of course, is revolutionary! It allows for full conversations to be translated in what's pretty damn close to real-time between two people who don't share a language. That's crazy!

But... how does it actually work?

The website's FAQ doesn't actually give any answers besides explaining the process itself, which I won't go into.

But, based off of the video, and according to the FAQ's descriptions of, quote, "Play Mode", it seems that there is voice cloning software in use when using the program.

Voice cloning, for those unaware, is something that's been around for decades. If you've ever seen a "JSchlatt Sings Frank Sinatra" video where the audio isn't pretty obviously cut-together voice clips spliced into new sentences, chances are you've been exposed to voice cloning. All of those AI voice things? Voice cloning.

While it is possible to do voice cloning without the use of AI, doing so requires immense amounts of voice data; it requires pretty much every sound a human mouth can make if you want it to clone a voice accurately. AI voice cloning is a version of generative AI, and we all know the dangers of gen AI, especially its catastrophic environmental impacts.

With Dababel, the app has you speak into the microphone, and then a cloned version of your voice says the original sentence in the language of your choosing. This is the app's main draw, and the previously-mentioned "Play Mode" allows you to save up to two voices to choose from. In order to add a voice/create one, you read a series of voice prompts for upwards of 15 seconds, and the program creates a fully-functioning clone of your voice from that.

If the voice cloning software is not AI, that's a good thing! But voice cloning like that can be costly and time-consuming, and Dababel makes it clear that these translations are quick and snappy enough to be used in real-time conversations. As such, it can pretty easily be assumed that generative AI is being used to produce such accurate voice cloning so quickly.

And so, when the website advertises that, quote, "The uniqueness of your voice is yours only. Your voice will never be used to train any AI models," it's a little hard to take that at face value. While, yes, your voice won't be used to train AI models in the same way stolen text can be used to train programs like ChatGPT, there is generative AI being used in regards to your voice and the spoken translations.

2. Terms and Conditions and Private Policy

Let's start with the private policy:

This will not be a comprehensive look, I assume that you all can do your own reading. I will, however, be listing the things that stand out to me the most.

Personal information is collected. Here is a list of what that information is:

names

email addresses

phone numbers

contact preferences

debit/credit card numbers

usernames

billing addresses

No information is collected from third parties except for, quote, "...in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company."

Cookies may be used on the website, which includes stuff that allows the following:

"We also permit third parties and service providers to use online tracking technologies on our Services for analytics and advertising, including to help manage and display advertisements, to tailor advertisements to your interests, or to send abandoned shopping cart reminders (depending on your communication preferences). The third parties and service providers use their technology to provide advertising about products and services tailored to your interests which may appear either on our Services or on other websites."

Using a social media log-in provides Dababel with the information relating to said social media.

Here is what is said about keeping your personal information safe:

"We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment."

This is notable because, within two hours of the program's announcement and it going live, it was hacked. While the hacker had good intentions and noted that subscription info wasn't immediately available upon hacking, it's something to keep in mind when it comes to potential security risks and the handling of your data, including payment information (which we'll get to soon.)

And now for the Terms and Conditions:

Again, this will not be comprehensive, but it is every consumer's right and responsibility to read through the Terms and Conditions provided for every good or service they purchas.

A lot of it is par-for-the-course as far as Terms and Conditions go.

Most notably, there is no actual usage of either the term "AI" or the phrase "Artificial Intelligence". As such, there is no transparency on the software being used to create the earlier-mentioned voice clones, and there is actually no real guarantee listed that protects your voice from being used to train AI models. That, as far as I can tell, is a promise exclusive to the program's front page; it's just advertising, not a real protected legal statement.

In addition, this statement from Section 2 worries me in regards to users' protections from AI:

"We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Services, including all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics in the Services (collectively, the "Content"), as well as the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the "Marks")."

What counts as audio in the case of an app whose functionality centers around vocal translations? And it is not guaranteed anywhere in the Terms and Conditions or the Privacy Policies that users' voices won't be saved by the company itself. Your voice is yours, yes, but would it not be reasonable for the company to claim ownership of a vocal clone? While it is illegal to claim ownership over someone's voice, that's a pretty new legal wormhole that hasn't been fully explored yet. Technology like Dababel is pushing the limits of what is and is not able to be claimed by the company as "Content". The vague wording could potentially allow the company to claim your vocal clone as "audio" that you agreed to let the company own by signing the Terms and Conditions.

Being the creator of the Terms and Conditions, the company maintains the right to change them at its discretion. Users will be notified of any changes, so please click and read through them if you use the program and receive an email about the Terms changing.

Here is what is said about user submissions:

"By directly sending us any question, comment, suggestion, idea, feedback, or other information about the Services ("Submissions"), you agree to assign to us all intellectual property rights in such Submission. You agree that we shall own this Submission and be entitled to its unrestricted use and dissemination for any lawful purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you."

And here is what's said about user representations:

"By using the Services, you represent and warrant that: (1) all registration information you submit will be true, accurate, current, and complete; (2) you will maintain the accuracy of such information and promptly update such registration information as necessary; (3) you have the legal capacity and you agree to comply with these Legal Terms; (4) you are not a minor in the jurisdiction in which you reside, or if a minor, you have received parental permission to use the Services; (5) you will not access the Services through automated or non-human means, whether through a bot, script or otherwise; (6) you will not use the Services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose; and (7) your use of the Services will not violate any applicable law or regulation."

The refund policy will be listed in the upcoming billing and payment section of the post.

Section 10 lists the service's prohibited activities, which I won't list all of for brevity's sake. But I will list one notable bullet point:

"Disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Services."

That bullet point can be argued to forbid users to overly criticize Dababel, its parent company, or its employees. This may include Quackity himself.

There is a binding arbitration clause, which basically means that, by agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, you agree not to take the company to court should informal negotiations not work out. However, quote, "the Parties may litigate in court to compel arbitration, stay proceedings pending arbitration, or to confirm, modify, vacate, or enter judgment on the award entered by the arbitrator." There are also provisions regarding exceptions to arbitration. Any instances of taking the company to court will have to be held in California.

Finally...

3. Payment

Dababel uses something called "credits" to sort of monitor how much you're allowed to translate at any given time.

Here are the subscription plans as listed on the Dababel FAQ:

Starter Plan: 5,000 weekly credits

Pro Plan: 10,000 weekly credits

Premium Plan: 20,000 weekly credits

Business Plan: 100,000 weekly credits

Enterprise Plan: Custom-built

Content Creator Plan: Custom-built

Your first purchase includes 1,000 extra credits.

And here are the prices as of 7/8/25 (July 8):

The payments are weekly.

Based off of user testimony, it appears that 500 credits is equal to 20 seconds. Doing the math, paying for the basic plan would come out to 3 minutes and 20 seconds of translations for 10 USD. And, because the payments are weekly, a month's worth of payments would come to less than an hour.

This contradicts the program's advertising of being able to use the app anywhere at any time, but it isn't necessarily bad. It just means that you'll have to conserve your conversations for really important things.

As listed in the Terms and Conditions, there is no refund policy available. As such, you cannot get a refund.

What is interesting is the fact that there doesn't seem to be sliding pricing depending on global location. This is the norm for most internet-based paid services, but Dababel seems to only use USD. That might be a small price for better-off US Americans, but that is an insane amount of money for other countries.

Here's a small list of price equivalents I went ahead and got:

9.99 USD

54.59 Brazilian Real

5599.38 CFA Franc

5035.23 Costa Rican Colón

565.76 Philippine Peso

13735.55 South Korean Won

8.53 Euro

185.39 Peso

But, even for US Americans, the country is rapidly sliding into an economic depression. It isn't sustainable for many Americans to spend 40 dollars a month on less than an hour's worth of translation services, and it inadvertently promotes the use of free services such as Google Translate.

None of the information regarding payment is advertised on the website's front page. Me clicking on the "Get Debabel Now" button thinking it would take me to an informational page on how to download the program and pay for it immediately just started downloading the program. In order to access the subscription plans, you have to go to the FAQ, which is only linked at the very bottom of the webpage.

In addition, the only mention of "credits" on the webpage outside of the FAQ is a statement that one's first subscription comes with 1,000 free credits. Absolutely nowhere is it stated how much a credit is worth, or even what a credit is; that information isn't given in the FAQ, either, increasing my confusion as I had to go to (ew) Twitter to try and find out how much a credit is worth.

4. Conclusion

My personal thoughts on Dababel are that it's a waste of money and a potentially-unsafe program that has wording in the Terms and Conditions that I do not like. The lack of transparency regarding AI and its potential usage in both the vocal cloning and the translation software really makes me worried about the environmental impacts Dababel could have, and Quackity/Dababel not saying a thing about AI doesn't give me much more hope.

However, Dababel is a truly incredible piece of engineering. AI usage aside, the potential for a real-time vocal translator is INCREDIBLE!! If something like this can be real now, imagine what it could be in even just a decade. Quackity and his team should be proud of themselves... if the program actually works.

I've seen people show hesitance towards Dababel's Japanese and Korean translations due to the... lackluster capabilities of the QSMP's translator when it came to languages with different sentence structures. But I've seen just as many hope that Dababel has grown past what the QSMP's translator was able to do, and it's quite possible that it has done so because its development has lasted longer than the QSMP's translator's (presumably) did.

With several languages already available and more supposedly on the way, it'll be interesting to see what Dababel has in store.