A Translator's Blues: Replacement by MT?

An Ad Translation Contract. A Standards-based Model Solution Uwe Muegge

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slate.com yesterday published an article by  NYC-based writer and translator Jesse Browner entitled "The Translator's Blues -- Will I get replaced by a computer program?"

Having been informed that at his workplace, "a large international organization translating speeches from French, Spanish, and Russian," human translation services are to be supplmented by machine translation software, he started worrying for his job. The article gives an interesting insight into the "translator's blues" -- the fear of being replaced by the offspring of the $ 8bn industry: automated translation.

With a variety of different software products out there and the increasing budgeting of MT research by defense and intelligence agencies worldwide, automated translation has by now reached a level of proficiency that makes it more than interesting for organisations translating "areas with a lot of standard phrasing, such as business letters, boilerplate contracts, and medical diagnostics."

Browner tested a variety of products ranging from freeware to professional systems like Language Weaver. While most of the products failed to translate even the most simple phrases, more dedicated software produced rather impressive results, he finds. Yet, overall, he concludes that most translators need not fear for their jobs as machine translation still is far from reaching near-human-translation-quality.

However, with intelligence agencies facing shortages of professional translators for specific languages, machine translation is a solution, so they think. MT systems mainly work on statistical evidence, that is by comparing phrases with previously translated pieces of text. However, they are unable to understand context, let alone concepts of connotation, association or implication. The author cites "the hoary classic in which 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,' translated into Russian and back, comes out 'The vodka is good, but the steak is lousy.'" With that in mind, Browner asks, "[What would they do to Proust? And how could they ever hope to take on Osama?"

Language Weaver CEO Bryce Benjamin acknowledges that even the best translation software cannot hope to replace human translators; it is simply one tool "to help them to increase productivity and value," Browner concludes. "That was all I needed to know. The war on terrorism notwithstanding, my job and those of thousands of professional translators in the arts, sciences, and industry seem relatively safe for now. But then again, horses were pretty damn sure of themselves 100 years ago, and look what happened to them."

Read the full article: slate.com