CALIFORNIA, CA, UNITED STATES, April 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐, also known as the ๐๐๐-๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐, is now open for registration. This yearโs challenge features a ๐ญ๐จ๐ญ๐๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐ณ๐ ๐ฉ๐จ๐จ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐,๐๐๐ and invites academic teams, industry teams, and individual researchers to advance Speech Large Language Models for real-world multilingual conversational speech.
The 2nd MLC-SLM Challenge focuses on key capabilities required for next-generation Speech LLMs, including ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค๐๐ซ ๐๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐ . Participants will work with multilingual, multi-speaker conversational speech data designed to reflect real-world dialogue scenarios.
๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ:
โข๐
๐ซ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
โขFree access to a large-scale multilingual conversational speech dataset for registered participants, featuring around ๐,๐๐๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐ฌ
โขA total prize pool of ๐๐๐ ๐๐,๐๐๐
Support for both academic and industry teams, as well as individual researchers
Following the success of the first MLC-SLM Challenge, which attracted 78 teams from 13 countries and regions, the 2026 edition introduces a larger and more diverse dataset. The first challenge also received 489 valid leaderboard submissions and 14 technical reports, and ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐ก๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ค๐ฌ
Participants can join two tracks:
๐๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐: ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐๐ซ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Participants are required to build systems that can identify who is speaking when and transcribe multilingual conversational speech. During evaluation, no oracle segmentation or speaker labels will be provided, making the task closer to real-world speech processing scenarios.
๐๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐: ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐
Participants are required to build systems that understand multilingual conversations using both acoustic and semantic information. Evaluation will be based on multiple-choice questions about the full conversation, testing the modelโs ability to capture meaning, context, and speaker-level information.
Both pipeline-based systems and end-to-end Speech LLM systems are welcome. External datasets and pretrained models are allowed, as long as they are freely accessible and clearly reported.
๐๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ
The challenge dataset contains around ๐,๐๐๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ-๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐ฌ, including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Urdu, and Turkish.
The dataset also includes diverse regional accents, such as Canadian French, Mexican Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, British English, American English, Australian English, Indian English, and Philippine English.
This makes the MLC-SLM Challenge a valuable benchmark for researchers working on multilingual ASR, speaker diarization, Speech LLMs, and spoken language understanding.
๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Registration is now open. Participation is free, and the dataset will be provided free of charge to registered participants.
๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ง๐ค*: https://forms.gle/jfAZ95abGy4ZiNHo7
๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฌ: https://www.nexdata.ai/competition/mlc-slm
๐๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐๐๐ญ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ฅ: mlc-slmw@nexdata.ai
Join the 2nd MLC-SLM Challenge 2026 and help advance the next generation of multilingual Speech Large Language Models.
MLC-SLM Organizing Committee
NEXDATA TECHNOLOGY INC.
+1 760-410-2223
kris.y@nexdata.ai
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