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I hope I'll never have to read a novel translated by "AI". It's already bad enough to see auto-translated documentation for Microsoft APIs and software by defau

I hope I'll never have to read a novel translated by "AI". It's already bad enough to see auto-translated documentation for Microsoft APIs and software by default, recently even auto-translated localization strings in Windows itself, or having to suffer from badly auto-translated item listings on ebay and other websites. Please stop pretending that automatic translation is a silver bullet that can stand on its own.

bserge 5y ago
Meanwhile I can't wait for the realtime voice/phone translator, which would be much more useful than me spending years learning a new language properly.
- nemetroid 5y ago
  And I can't wait for flying cars.
  - bserge 5y ago
    Except it's not a pipe dream. IBM and I think Google showed something like that a few years ago. And looking at it now, Skype has something: https://www.skype.com/en/features/skype-translator/ https://www.skype.com/en/features/skype-translator/ And Qualcomm is trying to integrate it with the hardware, which should reduce lag to an acceptable level: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2020/03/26/how-snapdragon-ai-and-youdao-are-working-connecting-world-real-time-translation https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2020/03/26/how-snapdragon-... Privacy advocates will have a field day with this stuff, though.
    - nemetroid 5y ago
      I'm not too worried about the lag, moreso about the quality of translation. It will likely be useful for basic conversations where the participants simplify their speech, which often is all you need. Or to get a rough idea of a more complex conversation. But it's far from obvious that we'll be able to go from there to anything comparable to the level of conversation you can have after spending years learning a new language properly. Perhaps nuclear fusion is a better comparison than flying cars (which arguably would be a bad idea even if we had the tech).
      - bserge 5y ago
        Deepl is already so good people don't realize they're taking to someone with zero knowledge of their language. Shouldn't be that hard to create a voice-to-voice translation engine. Specifically for Europe, the idioms and jokes are the 20%, we're already very similar to each other even though many don't want to believe it.
    - Dylan16807 5y ago
      Flying cars aren't exactly a pipe dream either. If we wanted them half as much as we want normal cars, we would have them by now. The right group of rich people could make them happen too.

bserge 5y ago

Meanwhile I can't wait for the realtime voice/phone translator, which would be much more useful than me spending years learning a new language properly.

nemetroid 5y ago
And I can't wait for flying cars.
- bserge 5y ago
  Except it's not a pipe dream. IBM and I think Google showed something like that a few years ago. And looking at it now, Skype has something: https://www.skype.com/en/features/skype-translator/ https://www.skype.com/en/features/skype-translator/ And Qualcomm is trying to integrate it with the hardware, which should reduce lag to an acceptable level: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2020/03/26/how-snapdragon-ai-and-youdao-are-working-connecting-world-real-time-translation https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2020/03/26/how-snapdragon-... Privacy advocates will have a field day with this stuff, though.
  - nemetroid 5y ago
    I'm not too worried about the lag, moreso about the quality of translation. It will likely be useful for basic conversations where the participants simplify their speech, which often is all you need. Or to get a rough idea of a more complex conversation. But it's far from obvious that we'll be able to go from there to anything comparable to the level of conversation you can have after spending years learning a new language properly. Perhaps nuclear fusion is a better comparison than flying cars (which arguably would be a bad idea even if we had the tech).
    - bserge 5y ago
      Deepl is already so good people don't realize they're taking to someone with zero knowledge of their language. Shouldn't be that hard to create a voice-to-voice translation engine. Specifically for Europe, the idioms and jokes are the 20%, we're already very similar to each other even though many don't want to believe it.
  - Dylan16807 5y ago
    Flying cars aren't exactly a pipe dream either. If we wanted them half as much as we want normal cars, we would have them by now. The right group of rich people could make them happen too.