Journalists writing about machine translation always lean on the proposition that MT will one day put professional translators out of business. Just as likely, ubiquitous availability of “good enough” translation will do the opposite. Here is why. In our localization maturity model, we posited a time in the future when advanced corporate and government users of language processes would achieve Level 5: Transparency. In this fabled future state, every employee would have access to translation capabilities including tools, resources, point-and-click process selection, and more importantly, cause. As translation becomes a normal part of every knowledge worker’s daily routine, it ceases to be a big, scary, difficult thing. It is easy, routine, and immediate. But no less valuable. In fact, machine translation could remove the “cloak of invisibility” from translators, giving them greater recognition and status. As 99.99 percent of translation is done by the machine, two things may happen: 1) The volume of human translation could increase; 2) the perceived value of human translation could increase. This is because when you bring in a live human, it means the transaction is very, very important. As interlingual communication becomes transparent, we predict that the number of situations where high-value transactions occur — that is, those requiring human translators and interpreters — will go up, not down. Elemi, kedves Watson (that’s “Elementary, my dear Watson” in Hungarian, according to Google — in this case good enough — Translate.)
Share or tag this post on: |
|
