We're safe Trådens avsändare: Daniel Frisano
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Daniel Frisano 
Italien
Local time: 15:52
Medlem (2008)
Engelska till Italienska
+ ...
Folks, we're safe. Translators*, I mean.
Out of curiosity I checked how a famous MT provider would perform in translating a patent that I just delivered. English to Italian, industrial stuff, easy as can be. The result: quite a disaster. Inconsistent terminology, technical blunders, frequent errors in the placement of reference numbers, inability to deal with ambiguity/generality. This piece of junk can't even decide which Italian word to use for "rail" or "slot". Not even close.... See more Folks, we're safe. Translators*, I mean.
Out of curiosity I checked how a famous MT provider would perform in translating a patent that I just delivered. English to Italian, industrial stuff, easy as can be. The result: quite a disaster. Inconsistent terminology, technical blunders, frequent errors in the placement of reference numbers, inability to deal with ambiguity/generality. This piece of junk can't even decide which Italian word to use for "rail" or "slot". Not even close.
As for technical manuals, where in addition to consistency and rigour, you also need a deliberate descriptive approach to explain everything clearly to the user, even worse.
As for language pairs not involving English (I tried German to Italian), worser than worse.
If this is the best MT can do, it's light years away from my standards.
(*Real translators, i.e., those who create from their own skills, as opposed to MT post-editors who adorably call themselves translators) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuraidog
USA
Local time: 09:52
Japanska till Engelska
My experience mirrors yours. I have been keeping a close eye on MT for decades now. Even the "best" MT tools make some rather ridiculous errors. Some insert text that is not even present in the original source file. Other times, they try to "translate" symbols that don't need to be translated, such as arrows, dashes, or circles in fields of tables.
The whole idea that AI/MT will take over the world is laughable. I've spoken to other AI experts that have told me the same thing about AI (al... See more My experience mirrors yours. I have been keeping a close eye on MT for decades now. Even the "best" MT tools make some rather ridiculous errors. Some insert text that is not even present in the original source file. Other times, they try to "translate" symbols that don't need to be translated, such as arrows, dashes, or circles in fields of tables.
The whole idea that AI/MT will take over the world is laughable. I've spoken to other AI experts that have told me the same thing about AI (albeit unrelated to translation).
Sure, AI translation, which IMHO is nothing more than basic language learning models, is improving (rather slowly), but the capability of AI translation seems to me to be highly overblown.
Just my two cents.... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Denis Fesik
Local time: 16:52
Engelska till Ryska
+ ...
| AI fans, where are you? | May 14 |
I mean, this thread is supposed to have at least one angry AI fan who will roast the heck out of the "safe" part of it. By the way, I don't believe we're quite safe because agencies and managers. No matter how hard I try to explain something about our job to a manager, they simply dismiss my explanations. Maybe they think I'm overselling myself, but no: I've been working with my current employer for over 5 years and never asked for a pay rise. Stupid, I know. I haven't noticed any improvements i... See more I mean, this thread is supposed to have at least one angry AI fan who will roast the heck out of the "safe" part of it. By the way, I don't believe we're quite safe because agencies and managers. No matter how hard I try to explain something about our job to a manager, they simply dismiss my explanations. Maybe they think I'm overselling myself, but no: I've been working with my current employer for over 5 years and never asked for a pay rise. Stupid, I know. I haven't noticed any improvements in the quality of machine translations since they first went neural and have been vocal about it on these here forums. And then I always leave open the possibility of me being the fool who doesn't understand that he is a fool ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
Storbritannien
Local time: 14:52
Medlem (2008)
Italienska till Engelska
Daniel Frisano wrote:
Folks, we're safe. Translators*, I mean.
We're not safe from agencies like the one that's been pestering me to train up their AI algorithm by checking architecture/construction texts phrase by phrase/word by word.
I refused, but others will not. Over time they'll get all the correct terms, in context and then we'll be f*cked (if we aren't already).
My hope remains in texts like this, which in this case refers to a drawing done in about 1957. If you can't see that drawing, you wouldn't be able to translate the text:
"Nel disegno esecutivo allegato (cfr. fig.248G), oltre al complesso sistema di fissaggio delle gronde in legno alle cicogne in ferro, il curioso dispositivo di bloccaggio delle due gronde nella parte a sbalzo, Mollino mostra i particolari del tetto a lose, che sostituiscono le scandole in ardesia previste originariamente ed il particolare del camino."
[Edited at 2025-05-14 13:17 GMT]
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Daryo
Storbritannien
Local time: 14:52
Serbiska till Engelska
+ ...
| Yes, but what about 'Les moutons de Panurges (21st Century Edition)'? | May 15 |
Daniel Frisano wrote:
Folks, we're safe. Translators*, I mean.
Out of curiosity I checked how a famous MT provider would perform in translating a patent that I just delivered. English to Italian, industrial stuff, easy as can be. The result: quite a disaster. Inconsistent terminology, technical blunders, frequent errors in the placement of reference numbers, inability to deal with ambiguity/generality. This piece of junk can't even decide which Italian word to use for "rail" or "slot". Not even close.
As for technical manuals, where in addition to consistency and rigour, you also need a deliberate descriptive approach to explain everything clearly to the user, even worse.
As for language pairs not involving English (I tried German to Italian), worser than worse.
If this is the best MT can do, it's light years away from my standards.
(*Real translators, i.e., those who create from their own skills, as opposed to MT post-editors who adorably call themselves translators)
All very true, but on top of the kind of people Tom in London mentioned, there is also the very real problem of the worryingly large number of people who swallowed the MT / AI hype hook, line and sinker - the kind of people of people who will walk straight off the cliff edge if their GPS tells them to do so, whatever their lying eyes may be screaming at them.
Les moutons de Panurges have their reincarnation … and it’s not a laughing matter.
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