4 ms·
We can’t be that far off from almost perfect real-time translation. There is some latency of course to hear and process
by coffeebeqn 3y ago
We can’t be that far off from almost perfect real-time translation. There is some latency of course to hear and process
- mrob 3y agoDifferences in verb-subject-object word order will always add latency. If you want to translate from German, with the verb at the end, to Welsh, where the verb goes at the start, you'll have to wait for the complete sentence before you can begin.
- tralarpa 3y agoIt's very impressive what simultaneous interpreters can do. They don't wait for the end of the sentence.
- numpad0 3y agoYeah they backtrack on branch prediction failures.
- MrsPeaches 3y agoEven they struggle with jokes though. This may be apocryphal but I’ve heard that in formal settings (e.g. UN) they won’t translate it and will instead give instruction on when to laugh.
- d3m0t3p 3y agoNot necessarily true, for the first few sentences you won’t be able to do it. But afterwards, once the context is established you don’t really need to wait for the verb, you can predict it. For example if you are speaking about cleaning the house and you detail that you have cleaned the kitchen the stove and so on, you can predict the verb with only the start of the sentence. I don’t have any source to back this up, but it sounds plausible
- gberger 3y agoWhat if the predicted verb was incorrect, but the model has already translated the incorrect prediction? How does it tell you about a mistake?
- mrandish 3y agoA good approach might be to start with how top notch, ultra-experienced human translators handle corrections for real-time scenarios, for example, the expert translators that do the ear monitors at the United Nations. I've worked with a few such real-time translators when preparing keynote speeches and they seem to have rigorous processes that appeared quite deep. Probably a ton of domain expertise to be captured there. That said, I suspect that real-time language translation is always going to be somewhat imperfect due to its nature. Non-real-time translation of literature is still a subjective art form even at the very high-end of human expertise.
- shkkmo 3y agoOnce you start predicting what someone is going to say you are no longer translating their speech
- Teever 3y agoYeah but then you're just introducing branch mispredictions which will cause latency and potential confusion down the line. It's all a trade off. Either way it's extremely exciting that we get to even discuss this stuff as real possiblities.
- kasdi 3y ago[dead]
- Innervisio 3y agoAlthough true and considering what “mrob” had also replied, this will never mean full translation every time, all the time. This will work with specific environments and linguistic expectations. I’ve been learning german since 8 years, and the amount of expressions and different ways to say things around the country is impressive. There’ll be a “interpretative” real-time translation, but it won’t guarantee fully understanding in so many cases, maybe ever. Other thing, and we have this in common with all languages, is the context and this is difficult to address i believe. Nevertheless, it’s impressive how far we’ve reached and i acknowledge the usability of these tools. However, human knowledge will be always crucial and primordial if we want to guarantee full understanding.
- InCityDreams 3y ago>I’ve been learning german since 8 years, "Since", as used here, would lead me to guess you are not a native English speaker?