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Microsoft developing instant translation tool that 'works like a human brain'

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ATIL KAYHAN
ATIL KAYHAN  Identity Verified
Turcia
Local time: 21:32
Membru (2007)
din turcă în engleză
+ ...
Machine Translation Nov 12, 2012

It sounds interesting but we should see the demonstration to make any judgements. My guess is that it is still a machine translation. I doubt it will go beyond that. Thus, it will not be like human translation. We have to wait and see.

 
LilianNekipelov
LilianNekipelov  Identity Verified
Statele Unite
Local time: 14:32
din rusă în engleză
+ ...
Yes, I agree. It won't go beyond that. Nov 12, 2012

It is just a lot of rumor about nothing. Nothing works like human brian -- some people may just not realize it.

 
Dusan Miljkovic
Dusan Miljkovic
Serbia
Local time: 20:32
din engleză în sârbă
+ ...
Not gonna happen Nov 12, 2012

One part of me hopes this is true because it would be a huge triumph after almost a century of research in the field, but the other part of me is pretty sure that this announcement is just due to Microsoft being desperate for attention.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spania
Local time: 20:32
din spaniolă în engleză
+ ...
Pull the other one Nov 12, 2012

Microsoft are notoriously unable top develop a bug-free OS, so I doubt if they will be able to develop an "instant translation tool that 'works like a human brain'" - unless said human happens to be Homer Simpson or similar...

 
Karin Seelhof
Karin Seelhof  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:32
din engleză în germană
+ ...
big words Nov 12, 2012

Last week in a little town in Austria: my husband bought some new computer hardware and had to do a setup of the complete operating system etc. Microsoft does not seem to be able to check online, if there are 2 systems running with the same product key - thus they require that the end-user makes a phone call, explaining, why he want to re-install his own Microsoft software, which he bought for a lot of money. So hubby had to make this call, with the result, that a computer voice told him, that ... See more
Last week in a little town in Austria: my husband bought some new computer hardware and had to do a setup of the complete operating system etc. Microsoft does not seem to be able to check online, if there are 2 systems running with the same product key - thus they require that the end-user makes a phone call, explaining, why he want to re-install his own Microsoft software, which he bought for a lot of money. So hubby had to make this call, with the result, that a computer voice told him, that it was 5 p.m. now and nobody would be there in order to help him. If it should be very urgent, he might call an English number on his own costs and try his English skills - good luck!

And this company is promising a translation system that works like a human brain? Hilarious, hahahaha.
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JAN SNAUWAERT
JAN SNAUWAERT  Identity Verified
Belgia
Local time: 20:32
Membru (2008)
din franceză în olandeză
+ ...
A joke Nov 12, 2012

I think this is a joke. Knowing the quality of Microsoft products in general (take for instance any version of Windows), they will come nowhere near to the quality of a good human translator.

 
FarkasAndras
FarkasAndras  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:32
din engleză în maghiară
+ ...
cheap shots Nov 12, 2012

Taking cheap shots at Microsoft is hardly warranted here. If you take the time to actually read the article before you respond to it and look past the journalistic hyperbole (which obviously did not come from Microsoft), you'll see that this is pretty interesting and pretty impressive.

In fact "Works like a human brain" is actually a somewhat justified phrasing here, as the tech they used is neural networks, the core feature of which is that it mimics certain aspects of how the huma
... See more
Taking cheap shots at Microsoft is hardly warranted here. If you take the time to actually read the article before you respond to it and look past the journalistic hyperbole (which obviously did not come from Microsoft), you'll see that this is pretty interesting and pretty impressive.

In fact "Works like a human brain" is actually a somewhat justified phrasing here, as the tech they used is neural networks, the core feature of which is that it mimics certain aspects of how the human brain works.
Nobody at Microsoft ever said that the systems they are building can give human translators a run for their money. This story isn't even about machine translation at all. They only claim to have made significant strides in speech recognition and speech synthetization, which certainly seems to be true.

By the way, if you think Microsoft isn't capable of impressive natural language processing, have a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFR3lOm_xhE
http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/
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Jacqueline Sieben
Jacqueline Sieben  Identity Verified
Ţările de Jos
Local time: 20:32
din olandeză în engleză
+ ...
Perhaps Apple...? Nov 12, 2012

Yeah, it seems unlikely. What about Macintosh - they are in many ways superior to Microsoft? They should have a go at it!

 
JAN SNAUWAERT
JAN SNAUWAERT  Identity Verified
Belgia
Local time: 20:32
Membru (2008)
din franceză în olandeză
+ ...
No cheap shots at all Nov 13, 2012

FarkasAndras, we don't take cheap shots at Microsoft at all. Since recently, I have been a IT-engineer for over 15 years. I can honestly say that their "flag ship", the Windows operating system, doesn't even deserve the name "operating system", given its lack of reliability, efficiency and the numerous flaws it contains. Taking into account that they are "developing" their operating system since the early 90s now, this is a criticism that can count. Personally, I don't know any Microsoft product... See more
FarkasAndras, we don't take cheap shots at Microsoft at all. Since recently, I have been a IT-engineer for over 15 years. I can honestly say that their "flag ship", the Windows operating system, doesn't even deserve the name "operating system", given its lack of reliability, efficiency and the numerous flaws it contains. Taking into account that they are "developing" their operating system since the early 90s now, this is a criticism that can count. Personally, I don't know any Microsoft product that I could recommend for its (outstanding) quality. So, no, I agree I didn't even have a closer look to what they really offer LSP-wise, as I trust that by now, I know enough of the company not to trust their products to be professionally outstanding to say the least.Collapse


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spania
Local time: 20:32
din spaniolă în engleză
+ ...
No cheap shots at all Nov 13, 2012

iqcservices wrote:

FarkasAndras, we don't take cheap shots at Microsoft at all. Since recently, I have been a IT-engineer for over 15 years. I can honestly say that their "flag ship", the Windows operating system, doesn't even deserve the name "operating system", given its lack of reliability, efficiency and the numerous flaws it contains.


My point exactly. When something the truth, it's not a "cheap shot", simply a bald statement of facts. And I say that as a long-suffering MS user.

[Edited at 2012-11-13 08:42 GMT]


 
urbom
urbom
Regatul Unit
Local time: 19:32
din germană în engleză
+ ...
Language Log post Nov 13, 2012

Language Log has a more insightful response to this 'news' item:
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4312


 
Ty Kendall
Ty Kendall  Identity Verified
Regatul Unit
Local time: 19:32
din ebraică în engleză
Hype(rbole) Nov 13, 2012

"The software was demonstrated in a presentation last year, when Microsoft’s chief research officer Rick Rashid spoke in English and it was almost instantly turned into Chinese by the program.

If this is the same thing as discussed in:
http://www.proz.com/forum/interpreting/236999-a_worrying_development.html

...then we have
... See more
"The software was demonstrated in a presentation last year, when Microsoft’s chief research officer Rick Rashid spoke in English and it was almost instantly turned into Chinese by the program.

If this is the same thing as discussed in:
http://www.proz.com/forum/interpreting/236999-a_worrying_development.html

...then we have it on good authority that the Chinese churned out isn't anything to write home about.

The overstated "works like a human brain" is just the hook.
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Danemarca
Local time: 20:32
Membru (2003)
din daneză în engleză
+ ...
Perhaps they really do mean it... Nov 13, 2012

... Brilliant if and when it works, but quirky, unpredictable, almost malicious and extremely difficult to sort out when it goes wrong???

That was what my human brain came up with after reading the comments above.



TRhe only one in seven or eihgt words wrong error ratwe os nbearly as good asmy tyoing...



[Edited at 2012-11-13 10:40 GMT]


 
FarkasAndras
FarkasAndras  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:32
din engleză în maghiară
+ ...
Sure Nov 13, 2012

iqcservices wrote:

FarkasAndras, we don't take cheap shots at Microsoft at all. Since recently, I have been a IT-engineer for over 15 years. I can honestly say that their "flag ship", the Windows operating system, doesn't even deserve the name "operating system", given its lack of reliability, efficiency and the numerous flaws it contains. Taking into account that they are "developing" their operating system since the early 90s now, this is a criticism that can count. Personally, I don't know any Microsoft product that I could recommend for its (outstanding) quality. So, no, I agree I didn't even have a closer look to what they really offer LSP-wise, as I trust that by now, I know enough of the company not to trust their products to be professionally outstanding to say the least.

I see. Thankfully, that's not a sweeping generalization. It's not like MS achieved and maintained a dominant market share in what has arguably been the world's most volatile and explosively developing industry over the last two decades.
And they certainly never branched out from their core windows & office business successfully, creating things like a highly successful gaming console.


 
Michelle Kusuda
Michelle Kusuda  Identity Verified
Statele Unite
Local time: 14:32
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
I would not worry about it. Nov 14, 2012

Many years ago Globalink, Inc. had translation software "Translate it" and "Power Translator". The company no longer exists. I was hired to translate their software package jackets which is an obvious sign that the software was not able to handle the job of a human. Machine translation does not detect context and cannot provide any literary style. While translation software should and will improve, there will always be a need for a human translator to check it!

 
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Microsoft developing instant translation tool that 'works like a human brain'







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