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Google Translate once translated 万 (ten thousand in Chinese) to “million” for me. I was shocked it could make such a basic mistake. It wasn’t even that long ago

by oefrha 5y ago

Google Translate once translated 万 (ten thousand in Chinese) to “million” for me. I was shocked it could make such a basic mistake. It wasn’t even that long ago, maybe 2018? Machine translation has a loooong way to go.

JPLeRouzic 5y ago
Not so bad for a machine, I once met a French Telco guy in charge of buying/selling minutes at a large operator who thought that "billion" meant "two million"
- paradite 5y ago
  i remember reading something similar (unit conversion) on HN. Maybe someone can link.
- rypskar 5y ago
  Maybe because France use the long scale, so a billion is a million millions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale#French-speaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale#French-sp...
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    Same in Norway. I'm from the US and the large numbers always take some thought. I didn't realize that I'd have to relearn counting when moving here, but honestly it is easier than trying to relate the time of day.
  - JasonFruit 5y ago
    The fact that international confusion over billions doesn't arise more often points out how bad people are at thinking about large numbers. We mostly don't notice the difference between a billion and a trillion.
eunos 5y ago
IIRC even this error seeps into a publication made by the GOP. Something about HVAC system in Wuhan.
transthrowawayy 5y ago
It was like that in 2020 as well -- I remember being really confused trying to see how many views a Daoko video on billibilli had. IIRC at that point it would translate e.g. "23 万" correctly, but 23万 would go to 23 million. I tried reporting the error, no idea if they actually pay attention to those! > Machine translation has a loooong way to go. Since large numbers on e.g. streaming sites are often reported in multiples of 万 in Chinese, but a million in English, I did wonder if the machine "learned" that they were equivalent.

by oefrha 5y ago

JPLeRouzic 5y ago

Not so bad for a machine, I once met a French Telco guy in charge of buying/selling minutes at a large operator who thought that "billion" meant "two million"

paradite 5y ago
i remember reading something similar (unit conversion) on HN. Maybe someone can link.
rypskar 5y ago
Maybe because France use the long scale, so a billion is a million millions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale#French-speaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale#French-sp...
- Broken_Hippo 5y ago
  Same in Norway. I'm from the US and the large numbers always take some thought. I didn't realize that I'd have to relearn counting when moving here, but honestly it is easier than trying to relate the time of day.
- JasonFruit 5y ago
  The fact that international confusion over billions doesn't arise more often points out how bad people are at thinking about large numbers. We mostly don't notice the difference between a billion and a trillion.

eunos 5y ago

IIRC even this error seeps into a publication made by the GOP. Something about HVAC system in Wuhan.

transthrowawayy 5y ago

It was like that in 2020 as well -- I remember being really confused trying to see how many views a Daoko video on billibilli had. IIRC at that point it would translate e.g. "23 万" correctly, but 23万 would go to 23 million. I tried reporting the error, no idea if they actually pay attention to those! > Machine translation has a loooong way to go. Since large numbers on e.g. streaming sites are often reported in multiples of 万 in Chinese, but a million in English, I did wonder if the machine "learned" that they were equivalent.