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I wonder why the NSA is not providing the translation services instead of Google. I would assume they are more than capable of doing it.
by torcete 5y ago
I wonder why the NSA is not providing the translation services instead of Google. I would assume they are more than capable of doing it.
- enriquto 5y agohow do you know it's not the case already?
- grumblenum 5y agoIs there even a clear line where intelligence agencies end and Google begins? Google was an In-Q-Tel baby, after all.
- GuB-42 5y agoMy guess is that they are not, or at least, not in a way that would make economic sense. The NSA doesn't have superpowers. They have a lot of competent people, paid to work on topics that are are important to state security, but I think they are lagging behind on topics with profitable commercial applications. And machine translation is one of these. The reason I think that is that working for a three letter agency comes with a burden of secrecy, and obviously, people tend not to work as efficiently if they are not allowed to talk to each others. These institutions are also plagued with pork-barrel economics, and secrecy is also a good way to hide incompetence. So if a private company can do it, it is better to let them do.