Google’s Computing Power Refines Translation Tool
Thread poster: Richard Bartholomew
Richard Bartholomew
Richard Bartholomew  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 17:10
German to English
Apr 29, 2010

This March 8, 2010 article in the New York Times (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/technology/09translate.html) gives an ambiguous prognosis for machine translation's progress at Google. On the one hand, author Miguel Helft writes: "Automated translation systems are far from perfect, and even Google’s will not put human translators out of a job anytime soon." On the o... See more
This March 8, 2010 article in the New York Times (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/technology/09translate.html) gives an ambiguous prognosis for machine translation's progress at Google. On the one hand, author Miguel Helft writes: "Automated translation systems are far from perfect, and even Google’s will not put human translators out of a job anytime soon." On the other hand:

“This technology can make the language barrier go away,” said Franz Och, a principal scientist at Google who leads the company’s machine translation team. “It would allow anyone to communicate with anyone else.”

So it looks as though talented people continue to bang their heads against the MT brick wall. Meanwhile, I guess we all still have jobs.
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Amy Duncan (X)
Amy Duncan (X)  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 13:10
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Both true Apr 29, 2010

"Automated translation systems are far from perfect, and even Google’s will not put human translators out of a job anytime soon."

"This technology can make the language barrier go away,” said Franz Och, a principal scientist at Google who leads the company’s machine translation team. “It would allow anyone to communicate with anyone else.”


Both of these statements are true. A genuine translation needs the accuracy that Google Translate can't offer; how
... See more
"Automated translation systems are far from perfect, and even Google’s will not put human translators out of a job anytime soon."

"This technology can make the language barrier go away,” said Franz Och, a principal scientist at Google who leads the company’s machine translation team. “It would allow anyone to communicate with anyone else.”


Both of these statements are true. A genuine translation needs the accuracy that Google Translate can't offer; however, for casual communication among people, it can be very helpful. For instance, I have friends on Facebook who speak only Dutch, Czech and Italian, and I use Google Translate to get an idea of what they're saying.
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Google’s Computing Power Refines Translation Tool






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