Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
Regarding translation, I have to disagree with @gigastacey , it isn’t simply a 1-1 substitution, it is much more subtle than that and it also depends on the languages you are going to and from.
German’s grammar structure is very different to English and the verb often comes at the very end of a sentence, so you can’t do good simultaneous translation, because you have to constantly pause for several seconds, until the sentence is finished. I worked as a translator and interpreter doing simultaneous translation at a conference.
Translation is hard, at least to do it to a professional level. My translations were good, but not good enough for a translation bureau, as I soon found out, but my translations are way better than most machine translations to date. They are getting better, but they still aren’t up to professional standards and it is critical that you proof read the end result, before you give it out - which sort of makes the point of translation software or AI moot for most people, if you have to be fluent to near-native levels to check the end result, before giving it out.
I used Google Translate to translate a handbook I had written into German several years ago. I used it, because I had to get the translation out on the same day and there was no way I could translate a 50 page manual in one day! I thought I could get GT to do the rough translation of the text and I could just tidy it up, but it had the real problem that the panel mentioned, about legal documents and getting the answer wrong. In my case it had a real problem with formal English:
Do not open the case, high voltage inside - Gehäuse öffnen, Startstrom drinnen - Open the case, high voltage inside.
Do not open the case, no user serviceable parts inside - Gehäuse öffnen, nichts drin - Open the case, nothing inside.
Obviously not what you want to hear, when you have given out over $6K for an industrial PC! I did take the time to teach Google Translate the correct translations, after I stopped laughing and picked myself up off the floor.
Interestingly, it didn’t have a problem with “don’t”, but every time it came across “do not”, it dropped the “not” completely from the translation.
AI is better than 3 or 4 years ago, and they are fine for getting the gist of an article, but they are still a long way away from providing the level of translation that can be used to translate legal documents, marketing material etc. ready for release to third parties.
What does @Leo mean when he talks about “the wisdom of the crowds?” TWIT is the only place I have heard that phrase. When he says it - my brain tends to auto-translate it into “mob mentality”, because it would seem to fall along the same lines.
That was a common saying, back in my youth, in the 1970s, in the UK. Although it is singular, “the wisdom of the crowd”.
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I’m referring to James Surowiecki’s excellent 2004 book “The Wisdom of Crowds.”
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Seconded! “Wisdom of Crowds” is a fantastic book, very insightful.
Without having read it, of course, I am skeptical of the premise. But that might be due to witnessing the last 3 US Presidential elections and the “wisdom” (such as it was and what there was of it) expressed by substantial number of individuals.
I will add it to my list for reading and give it the chance to inform my perspective.