Jonathan Lichtman, senior vice president of SAIC, believes it’s possible. His firm recently launched the first translator that integrates both machine translation and automated speech recognition into the same platform. Below there is an interview with Lichtman about why the possibilities of this technology are exciting and what lies ahead for the sector.
Q: Why is translation technology important?
We live in an era of rapid globalization, which is demonstrated by the growing demand for language services. Common Sense Advisory, an independent analyst firm that focuses on this area, estimates the demand for language services will grow 12% annually. Simply put, human translators do not have the capacity to meet this demand.
Q: So how exactly does translation technology help meet this growing demand?
Translation technology solves this problem in two ways. First, it enables translation at a level where it does not need to involve a human. Secondly, we’ve seen translation technology increase human translator productivity by up to 400%.
Ultimately, translation is important because it facilitates multilingual communication and allows people from around the world to better understand one another culturally, economically and socially.
Q: With this new approach, at what point can we completely overcome the language barrier?
This is an interesting question that really shows the complexity of human language. If I am sitting in the same room as a colleague and we are both native English speakers, I still may only understand 98% of his intended meaning. So for that reason alone, translation technology will never be perfect. The rapidly evolving nature of language I mentioned earlier is another.
However, I do believe that there are currently tailored language solutions that can now approximate the accuracy of humans in some cases. I also believe that in the next decade the quality of language technology will continue to evolve where human-quality machine translations will be the norm rather than the exception. That said, human communication will never be without misunderstanding and an inaccurate perception regardless of how well the technology can perform. More.
The translation workplace 
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Spagna
Local time: 08:59
Da Spagnolo a Inglese
+ ...
"First, it enables translation at a level where it does not need to involve a human"... ??!
I'm afraid this doesn't sound like good news to me, a mere human.
Caveat emptor.
Turchia
Local time: 09:59
Da Turco a Inglese
+ ...
"First, it enables translation at a level where it does not need to involve a human."
I do not think we will ever come to a point at which translation will not involve a human. This is because translation is both an art and a science.
Stati Uniti
Local time: 23:59
Da Inglese a Tedesco
+ ...
Another example: Technically, no human being needs another human being to fulfill their sexual needs.
Jonathan Lichtman is an IT person who, like many others in this particular industry, has apparently has lost track of the real world.
Local time: 08:59
Da Inglese a Croato
+ ...
" translation is important because it facilitates multilingual communication and allows people from around the world to better understand one another culturally, economically and socially. "
Yes, it's exactely the machine (without any human involvement) that will explain and demonstrate the cultural/social nuiances.
These people seemed to have involved money (and time) into the machine translation technology and are now using quite absurd or contradictory arguments to prove their points and justify the investement.
[Edited at 2012-08-19 16:14 GMT]
Germania
Local time: 08:59
Da Tedesco a Inglese
'Right now a really exciting innovation is the integration of machine translation (MT) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology (Apple’s SIRI is an example of ASR) into one platform.'
I've repeatedly wondered why people try to solve two nearly (or perhaps ultimately) intractable problems at the same time. It's as though Colombus were to hold a meeting on the deck of the Niña to announce that sailing to the Indies wasn't enough of a challenge and that he intended to make a detour to the north pole first to really cement his place in the history books.
Russia
Local time: 10:59
Da Italiano a Russo
+ ...
and an ideal candidate to be launched to Mars (forever
Messico
Local time: 01:59
Da Inglese a Spagnolo
I use a MCB (Machine Crystal Ball) to predict the future.
In the future, freelance translators and real language professionals forced to use MTs by agencies that want to "increase productivity" (i.e. increasing their income while reducing their payroll, which is, what you earn per word) by automatizing incoherently "perfect" machined (sic) so-called low cost text solutions (damn sic) will be treated as fast food industry underpaid, underbrained employees with no rights and no dignity, and ultimately, no job.
Language, at last, will succumb to the urges of a society who will have consumed its alphabets into a single, universally understandable character: $.
Then the Sun will become a Red Giant and Earth will be joyfully and definitively engulfed and destroyed.
Only a few wealthy ones will be saved on a star ship cruising the space with the hope of finding unknown planets to be colonized, abused and desecrated with increased productivity and higher revenue.
The universe will freeze. Everything will come to an end.
This comment was sponsored by Big Machine Global Balls, making your life duller since you didn't care about it when we warned you, now stfu, grin and bear, and starve, and pay us, and be thankful we don't screw you even more, and we will if you don't do something to stop us.
Russia
Local time: 10:59
Da Italiano a Russo
+ ...
Only a few wealthy ones will be saved on a star ship cruising the space...
Ernesto, it's exactly at this step when we will badly need very fast and very efficient MT, I think.
Messico
Local time: 01:59
Da Inglese a Spagnolo
Ernesto, it's exactly at this step when we will badly need very fast and very efficient MT, I think.
Rest assured that I definitively won't make it, ;]
[Edited at 2012-08-24 02:06 GMT]
Slovenia
Local time: 08:59
'Right now a really exciting innovation is the integration of machine translation (MT) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology (Apple’s SIRI is an example of ASR) into one platform.'
I've repeatedly wondered why people try to solve two nearly (or perhaps ultimately) intractable problems at the same time. It's as though Colombus were to hold a meeting on the deck of the Niña to announce that sailing to the Indies wasn't enough of a challenge and that he intended to make a detour to the north pole first to really cement his place in the history books.
The problems are probably deeply connected - in order to make them realy work, you have to understand the text. The problem of ASR is that the speech realy doesn't contain all the information one would need to produce text. So you have to guess the missing pieces based on context and to do this you have to understand the text, make hypothesis and select the most probable variant. I don't think even a human could accurately write down a speech in language he doesn't know. For good result in MT, you also have to understand the text to predict which sense of a word is the right one. And recognise the hidden meaning.
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