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A while back I heard a story from a doctor friend about colleagues who would use Google Translate to translate notes to Spanish-speaking patients. That kind of
by hodgesrm 9y ago
A while back I heard a story from a doctor friend about colleagues who would use Google Translate to translate notes to Spanish-speaking patients. That kind of stuff is an accident waiting to happen.
The issue is not machine learning per se although that's behind a lot of the free services that have popped up. Rather it's that once you get outside the scope of translations the system can handle the results may be catastrophically bad. You can't judge the risk unless you understand the assumptions behind the translation service. Most people don't know this and just use free services without thinking.
- kwhitefoot 9y agoAlways get the machine to translate it back again as a first check that you haven't got something that the system isn't good at. I use it often when I write Norwegian because even after thirty years I still don't remember what gender everything is (I'm English but I write in Norwegian when writing to the locals). If I don't get my original Norwegian back I know it's worth a closer look. Doing it from your own language to a language you don't speak at all without at least that simple double check is asking for trouble.