Being one of the main revelations of artificial intelligence (AI), Machine translation (MT) significantly dominated the scenery of translation services in the recent years. This fact has had a lot of impacts on the field of language services which we need to reflect on, but we firstly need to introduce some basic facts for those who may not be so familiar with this topic.
What is Machine Translation?
Machine translation (MT) could be simply defined as the conversion of a text from one language to another by a computer software without human involvement. Across the years, the use of machine translation has been regarded as a double-side process; having both its positive and negative sides. From rule-based machine translation (RBMT) to neural machine translation (NMT), the process itself has a long chronological history of development; and it’s still ongoing.
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Most Famous Machine Translation Engines
Pros & Cons of MT
The advantages of machine translation generally come down to two factors: it’s faster and cheaper. The downside to this is the standard of translation can be anywhere from inaccurate, to incomprehensible, and potentially dangerous (Sensitive texts; medical, legal, etc.). Such facts necessitated the existence of another service called machine translation post-editing (MTPE).
What is Machine Translation Post-editing (MTPE)?
Machine translation post-editing is editing and reviewing the machine-translated text by an expert human linguist, in order to check its accuracy. In each MTPE process, there is a predefined goal that defines the level of editing needed to reach the target quality. This is the exact phase of the process that defines the level of MTPE needed, whether to be light or full.
Light Machine Translation Post-editing
Light machine translation post-editing focuses on delivering a target text that is just understandable, while not caring for errors that don’t prevent the delivery of the message or for the refinement of style. In terms of linguistics elements, light MTPE usually focuses on correcting mistranslations and vague sentences. For example, it could be used for social media texts and scripts intended for in-house employees.
Full Machine Translation Post-editing
On the other hand, full machine translation post-editing cares for all aspects of translation, like consistency and style. It aims to deliver a target text that has the same level of human translation. Full MTPE is needed for texts intended for public audience, or complex texts of high importance, like medical, legal or safety texts.
Impact of MT on the Translation Industry & Outlook
The Global Machine Translation Market Size gathered USD 812.6 Million in 2021, and is set to garner a market size of USD 4,069.5 Million by 2030.
So, should human translation be announced already dead?!
Well, that is one tough question. On one hand, we got players in our team. Those are both human factors and linguistic factors. Human factors are like cognition, cultural nuances, creativity and humor. While linguistic factors are like parts of speech, the variety of dialects, informal speech, etc.
On the other hand, machine translation as a part of the AI revolution is continuously evolving and getting better and better each day.
Finally, we should make the best out of both. This means to benefit from the high productivity and economic added value of machine translation, while supporting it with the indispensable human capacity.
Share your thoughts with us on this important topic.