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Microsoft unveils real-time audio and text-based language translation via Skype

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Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:57
English to German
+ ...
Just because something is presented as an extraordinary tool doesn't mean it really is Jun 6, 2014

naiaraz wrote:

I really want to thank you for all the details you gave us about the German language. Since I can't speak German, I was dumbfounded by the announcement and by the videos. At least for the first minutes. But then I thought: Well, we are talking about Microsoft and its Bing translator. Nahhh, that can't be right. And it really wasn't.


Thank you, Naiaraz! Yes, i thought I give a little more info on the actual translation to show that this is not a great translation device even though the moderators were trying to present it that way.

Best,

B
 
Pompeo Lattanzi
Pompeo Lattanzi
Italy
Local time: 17:57
English to Italian
+ ...
Well Jun 21, 2014

Orrin Cummins wrote:
I would worry more about them taking over the world, as that woman on stage in the video so poignantly remarks. I think that's what a lot of people don't really understand - for machine translation to operate on a really universal level, the machine has to pretty much think like a human.

If you watch the video, take special notice when the Microsoft guy says that they have no idea why the algorithm learns the way it does. Think about it for a while. This should scare you.


And the answer: It will NEVER happen--that they will start thinking. They are just dummies which can count. (the computers, or robots) As I said in another thread before--MT may have some use for translating set phrases, or idioms--not as a part of larger pieces, though, but just as separate items. [/quote]

All I can respond with is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxAqxI5R6RA [/quote]

Well, ever since Turing, scientists and philosophers have debated the question of "how to differentiate" between computers and people, meaning how do you know the entity "speaking" to you is human or otherwise. As Orrin puts it, it's not a question of "IF", it's a question of "WHEN", and right now it's starting to look like it's going to happen in our lifetime. You don't have to take my word for it, it's happening already: look at the way you write numbers in the UK and USA: in Italy and elsewhere the shapes are slightly different, because yours have been adapted for easier reading by a machine and that's what they teach you in schools.
In any case, this whole debate about MT and now MI (machine interpreting?) is starting to sound to me like the revolt of horse carriage drivers in the UK against that newfangled invention that was the steam engine.
 
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Microsoft unveils real-time audio and text-based language translation via Skype







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