Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

VulcanMind1 t1_ja20l45 wrote

Reply to comment by TheSensibleTurk in How far off are we from not needing to learn languages? by AmericanMonsterCock

I totally disagree with your assessment of AI ability for translation. I've used Facebook translation, Google text and verbal recognition to translate. I also have friends that do translation services.

The reality is there are many examples of sarcasm or cultural explanation that doesn't allow for direct translation.

−9

BobLoblaw_BirdLaw t1_ja2acwp wrote

Sounds like you’re using basic public systems as are your friends. While that guy is probably working on the tech that hasn’t been released. So what exactly are you disagreeing with, something you or your friends haven’t seen yet ?

12

VulcanMind1 t1_ja2ykot wrote

I'm saying that a robot will always fail in a translation where cultural context is needed and only a professional translator such as my friends that do this job will be able to bridge that gap.

For example "Where's the Craic?" First off a robot would hear this expression as "Where's the crack?" because the programing is likely based on US English and not Irish English. Next if this was a court of law, the Irish speaker would be getting hauled off to jail for trying to buy drugs!

These translation robots will never be able to translate yob talkers to American English and anyone that down voted my last post are a bunch of slags.

−2

cossington t1_ja3iykz wrote

I'm a professional interpreter and translator. AI will eat our lunch. It's simply a data issue. Google translate and similar models use a dictionary approach, a bit more complicated than 1 to 1 word translation but same overall principles. Once we train AI models on actual speech, with slang, common mistakes and cultural references, highly accurate real time interpretation will be accurate enough. These models won't follow a 1 to 1 word translation.

2