Advances in AI and translators
With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence technology developed by leaps and bounds. At the same time, it can be confirmed that machine translation technology linked to this is also evolving day by day. As the situation looks like this, people are sad to raise their heads with this kind of curiosity. The question is whether the time will come when translators can replace translators, and if that happens, the job of a translator will completely disappear. In fact, I don't think there is an occupation group that is not threatened by the fourth industrial revolution and the development of artificial intelligence. However, since translators are a part of everyday life, it seems that many people are asked such questions. So in today's letter, I'm going to write about whether a translator can completely replace the role of a translator.
Since there are many people who are curious, it is said that this confrontation actually took place in 2017. Hosted by the International Association of Interpreters and Translators, there was a 5 vs 5 confrontation between AI translators and human translators. Google, MS, and Naver came out as AI representatives, and the result was a victory for the translators.
It is said that the translators received an average score of 49, and the AI translator received a score of 19.9. Although Google Translate took the first place among translators, there is quite a big difference in score when comparing results with translators. I think the development of artificial intelligence and translation are inextricably linked. Therefore, it is expected that stories such as “Can a translator replace a translator” and “How perfect can a translator be?” will probably continue to rise and fall in the future. I think it will be difficult to draw an accurate future for this. However, one thing is certain: many insights can be obtained through the work of improving the translation quality of the translator.
To what extent are the roles of a translator and a translator separated?
More than many people think, translation is a complex and specific task. Translators are often used as auxiliary tools for translators in their work, and the reality is that it is actually difficult to produce perfect quality translations with the translator itself. Of course, translators are completely ahead of translators in terms of time, but if they were to simply replace translators with fast translation, the two jobs would have disappeared after the release of electronic dictionaries.
It can be said that the current focus of translation is on accuracy above anything else. Speed is also an aspect that cannot be ignored when entrusting translation, but understanding context and emotion and translating properly and accurately is an even more important quality to have as a translator. In that sense, I think it's a bit too early to compare translators and translators at this time of year. I hope you enjoyed reading today's letter, and I'll be back with the next one.
Editor l Lee In Hye
inhye.lee@twigfarm.net
