Few people know the worth and relevance of translators’ work until they are in need of using it. It is common to hear the argument that when it comes to translating, Google Translator, Word Lens and other similar automated translation apps are more than enough.
Technology has evolved in such manner and so fast in the past few years that we have begun to see the arrival of machines or computer programs that are replacing people in their jobs. To many people, technology is destroying jobs at a faster pace than is creating new ones. It seems like we are starting to live in a Stephen King-style science fiction movie, where machines are progressively taking control of our lives, including our jobs.
According to professor Erik Brynjolfsson from the Sloan School of Business Administration and Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) “… technological process serves to growing economy and creating wealth, but there is no economic law stating that everybody will benefit from it”. This means that it is likely that in the human race against machines some will win while many others will lose. In our opinion, translators will not be among the losers in this race.
Despite that over recent years multiple machine translation tools have emerged thanks to technological breakthroughs the translator’s profession still is and will remain paramount to globalized communications. After having tried many of these tools in the past, we can conclude that, to this point, no machine is capable of translating to the target language with the same accuracy and naturalness as human beings do, particularly educated and experienced translators. This is because the increasingly complex algorithms that have been developed to try to replace the work of translators are less accurate when it comes to translating, for instance, expressions specific to the source language or popular idioms that have an equivalent in different cultures while using other words; neither are they successful in changing the grammatical structure of a phrase so that it may be effortlessly read in the target language. Also, they often turn out to be unsuccessful in terms of translating terms with different possible meanings, which require selecting one option over another depending on the context. All these situations require an analytical process at a contextual and linguistical level that only human beings are able to perform.
It is possible that these tools will be perfected and refined over time. In any event, however, we are completely sure that artificial intelligence at a linguistical level will never be able to replace the valuable and significant contribution made by translators when it comes to accurately and naturally transforming a text from any language to another. Despite the possibility that machines are able to take control over many aspects of our lives and jobs in the future, there is no question that translation, one of the oldest occupations in the world, will make it through and remain doing what it knows best: continue facilitating the communication of ideas between different languages within an increasingly globalized world.
TRANSLATORS WILL SURVIVE THE REBELLION OF THE MACHINES
Few people know the worth and relevance of translators’ work until they are in need of using it. It is common to hear the argument that when it comes to translating, Google Translator, Word Lens and other similar automated translation apps are more than enough.
Technology has evolved in such manner and so fast in the past few years that we have begun to see the arrival of machines or computer programs that are replacing people in their jobs. To many people, technology is destroying jobs at a faster pace than is creating new ones. It seems like we are starting to live in a Stephen King-style science fiction movie, where machines are progressively taking control of our lives, including our jobs.
According to professor Erik Brynjolfsson from the Sloan School of Business Administration and Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) “… technological process serves to growing economy and creating wealth, but there is no economic law stating that everybody will benefit from it”. This means that it is likely that in the human race against machines some will win while many others will lose. In our opinion, translators will not be among the losers in this race.
Despite that over recent years multiple machine translation tools have emerged thanks to technological breakthroughs the translator’s profession still is and will remain paramount to globalized communications. After having tried many of these tools in the past, we can conclude that, to this point, no machine is capable of translating to the target language with the same accuracy and naturalness as human beings do, particularly educated and experienced translators. This is because the increasingly complex algorithms that have been developed to try to replace the work of translators are less accurate when it comes to translating, for instance, expressions specific to the source language or popular idioms that have an equivalent in different cultures while using other words; neither are they successful in changing the grammatical structure of a phrase so that it may be effortlessly read in the target language. Also, they often turn out to be unsuccessful in terms of translating terms with different possible meanings, which require selecting one option over another depending on the context. All these situations require an analytical process at a contextual and linguistical level that only human beings are able to perform.
It is possible that these tools will be perfected and refined over time. In any event, however, we are completely sure that artificial intelligence at a linguistical level will never be able to replace the valuable and significant contribution made by translators when it comes to accurately and naturally transforming a text from any language to another. Despite the possibility that machines are able to take control over many aspects of our lives and jobs in the future, there is no question that translation, one of the oldest occupations in the world, will make it through and remain doing what it knows best: continue facilitating the communication of ideas between different languages within an increasingly globalized world.
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