| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: How concerned are you about losing your job to translation software in the future? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Mario Chavez (X) 
Local time: 04:57
English to Spanish
+ ...
Artificial intelligence and translation technologies before it have been overpromised and underdelivered for decades. Sure, I enjoy watching old reruns of Star Trek when they use their UT (Universal Translator) to communicate with alien species (never mind that alien species developing a human-sounding language is nearly a biological and evolutionary impossibility). I also enjoy watching movies about AI not because they're informative but because they're entertaining and pose moral dilemmas or ... See more Artificial intelligence and translation technologies before it have been overpromised and underdelivered for decades. Sure, I enjoy watching old reruns of Star Trek when they use their UT (Universal Translator) to communicate with alien species (never mind that alien species developing a human-sounding language is nearly a biological and evolutionary impossibility). I also enjoy watching movies about AI not because they're informative but because they're entertaining and pose moral dilemmas or questions.
One of the few places where I've seen automatic translation take hold is in some websites, the translations of which are seldom read (shh, no one will ever notice!). They resemble the painted cardboard sets of a bygone Hollywood studio.
Even though some translators profess not to worry about translation software dominating the profession, I've noticed that they are inordinately concerned with technology tools, apps and the like. As if posting more tweets, blogging about the latest translation tool or announcing the latest version of a CAT tool and its virtues will make them better professionals. No, they become better shills and promoters of translation software makers, that's all. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 05:57
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Although in many places quality is not really an issue, being 'replaced' by machine translation is not a possibility. You can 'teach' a computer to play chess, because it can be reduced to math formulas. But reducing all possible language constructions to a binary 'rationale' would require more labor and storage costs than the work of all translators for 100 years. And it would still not have any feelings.
A computer can pe programmed to translate text, but not messages.
[Ed... See more Although in many places quality is not really an issue, being 'replaced' by machine translation is not a possibility. You can 'teach' a computer to play chess, because it can be reduced to math formulas. But reducing all possible language constructions to a binary 'rationale' would require more labor and storage costs than the work of all translators for 100 years. And it would still not have any feelings.
A computer can pe programmed to translate text, but not messages.
[Edited at 2016-07-27 16:20 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 10:57
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Why should I be? | Jul 28, 2016 |
svenfrade wrote:
I don't believe that MT will ever be able to come anywhere close to producing an even acceptable translation.
I fully agree with Sven. MT can't deliver quality translations, not for the next 100+ years.
Another reason why I'm not concerned is because MT will (most probably) never be able to translate literary projects, let alone poetry.
| | | | | Not worried at all | Jul 28, 2016 |
Katrin Bosse wrote:
I studied at the University of Mainz, Germany. In 2002, a new professor was appointed to our institute and his introductory speech to us students was basically that we, the future batch of translators would, upon our release into the world, be competing with highly developed ai systems and machine translation technology that would not only pose a severe threat to our livelihood but, within a span of between five to ten years, make us redundant altogether.
We were all quite taken aback by his claim and kept wondering what he could possibly have seen in being appointed to a dying branch within the linguistic field...
Fast-forward 14 years.
Not only had this professor ridiculously miscalculated the development of the ai technology, my experience in the field has convinced me time and again that there will always be work for me.
It's a very satisfactory feeling.
I can only agree with Katrin - just recently I was asked to "edit" a machine translation, and just taking a quick look at what I was presented with, I knew I'd be quicker translating everything from scratch (and that's what I told the customer too).
Here's just one example of what convinced me (again), there's no need to worry just yet - and there won't be for a while, at least not as far as rather complex languages like German are concerned:
ENG SOURCE (product review on a shopping website - including spelling mistakes by the reviewer):
It keeps deer away, but the other pest it claims to rappel are not even bothered by it.
MACHINE TRANSLATION INTO GER:
Es hält Hirsch weg, aber der andere Schädling hat sich nicht einmal die Mühe gemacht, sich abzurappeln.
BACKTRANSLATION INTO ENG would be something along the lines of:
It keep stag off, but the (one) other pest did not even bother to work his arse off. 
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