| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Google's AI translation system is approaching human-level accuracy
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| | Egmont Schröder 
Germany
Local time: 23:14
Member (2013)
Chinese to German
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| Would it be so bad? | Oct 5, 2016 |
A world in which all labor is done by machines was an utopian vision around 100 years ago, but now it became something like a nightmare.
I think we can give machines around 30 years, after this we are all unemployed. Translation and interpreting can be done by computers then.
But the translation industry is not the only industry affected by this development. Take the driverless car as an example: In aorund 20 years this kind of car will be ready for the market, think ab... See more A world in which all labor is done by machines was an utopian vision around 100 years ago, but now it became something like a nightmare.
I think we can give machines around 30 years, after this we are all unemployed. Translation and interpreting can be done by computers then.
But the translation industry is not the only industry affected by this development. Take the driverless car as an example: In aorund 20 years this kind of car will be ready for the market, think about how many people will lose their job then.
The question is: Is this good or bad? We could have plenty of time for our families and cultural activities. The problem is just that our economical systems and mindsets haven't adopted to this reality yet. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | There are trends going the other way | Oct 5, 2016 |
Especially in the food industry. We don't all eat factory bread - anyone who can afford it buys artisan bread or even bakes their own. Really good food is not mass produced, although many of the ingredients may be. Flour, frozen vegetables etc. etc. are fine. Salads and delicate berries and fruits, quality olives, lots of products are not suitable for machine handling.
Everywhere you look, there are examples of a return to craftsmanship, or whole trades and professions where it has ... See more Especially in the food industry. We don't all eat factory bread - anyone who can afford it buys artisan bread or even bakes their own. Really good food is not mass produced, although many of the ingredients may be. Flour, frozen vegetables etc. etc. are fine. Salads and delicate berries and fruits, quality olives, lots of products are not suitable for machine handling.
Everywhere you look, there are examples of a return to craftsmanship, or whole trades and professions where it has never been dropped.
Even if machines were capable of doing all the work, it would take huge armies of mechanics and technicians to manufacture and maintain the machines, program them... Sooner of later, people will discover that machines are great for some things, and I would not go back to living in a cave without running water and preferably a freezer!
Nevertheless, there are also many things humans simply do better, so if the machines can free us up for that kind of work, we should be glad. I think there will be a market for human translations as long as there are humans who actually want to communicate with each other!
[Edited at 2016-10-05 17:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | It's worse than that | Oct 6, 2016 |
Tom in London wrote:
It's worse than that: mankind is now devoting immense effort to spend the next 100 years sending humans to Mars and beyond in the hope of finding a habitable planet, when we already have one right here (if we would only look after it).
Why do people backup their data if they already have a working computer?
It takes only one asteroid impact to destroy humans forever. We really must not keep all our eggs in one basket any longer.
| | | | | It never will. | Oct 9, 2016 |
Just some advertising by those companies. Even most banks gave up on the fully voice activated system, so the proof is in the adding.
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| Maybe it will not replace human translator | Oct 12, 2016 |
However, many people use machine translation every day to translate texts they are interested in, but which are not business critical and don't need to be translated properly, such as news from other language areas, internet forum messages, classifieds etc. I use the G-company's translator service to help with news and bureaucracy in Spain, until my Spanish is fluent enough.
Would I read literature or poetry translated by machine, or trust it to translate my contracts? Of course not.
| | | | Ed Ashley
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:14
French to English
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| Tell that to the cafeteria I ate at recently | Oct 14, 2016 |
Google Translate recently furnished a cafeteria I ate at with a splendid French-English translation, in which 'chia' was mistaken for some kind of conjugation of 'chier' and rendered as (yes, you've guessed it) 'shit'.
Excuse me if I don't quake in my boots just yet.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 23:14
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Can't believe... | Oct 14, 2016 |
these businesses are taking their content and reputation so loosely.
| | | | Olga Koepping
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:14
German to English
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| Ed, thank you for the laugh of the day! | Oct 14, 2016 |
I really want to know now where that cafe is!
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Ed Ashley
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:14
French to English
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| That's the worrying thing... | Oct 15, 2016 |
Olga Koepping wrote:
I really want to know now where that cafe is!
It was in the cafeteria of a well-known international organisation. For shame!
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[quote]Christine Andersen wrote:
I think there will be a market for human translations as long as there are humans who actually want to communicate with each other!
I couldn't express it any better.
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