TechGist05

In the many discussions by different parties in the professional translation world involving machine translation, we see a great deal of conflation and confusion because most people assume that all MT is equivalent and that any MT under discussion is largely identical in all aspects. Here is a slightly modified description of what conflation is from the Wikipedia. Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more implementations, concepts, or products, sharing some characteristics of one another, seem to be a single identity — the differences appear to become lost. [1] In logic , it is the practice of treating two distinct MT variants as if they were one, which produces errors or misunderstandings as a fusion of distinct subjects tends to obscure analysis of relationships which are emphasized by contrasts. However, there are many reasons to question this “all MT is the same” assumption, as there are in fact many variants of MT, and it is useful to have some general understanding...

While we have reached a point in time where many more people realize that machine translation (MT) produces the best results when it is properly customized, what customization actually means is still not well understood.  There is a significant difference between shallow customization and deep customization in terms of the impact on the MT system’s output quality. The quality of output in turn has a direct impact on the potential business leverage and return on investment. There are a growing number of MT vendors, but very few real MT developers in the market today, and deep expertise is the key differentiator that leads directly to better output and better productivity. It is important for anyone considering purchasing an MT solution to understand the difference between the two types of vendors . Generally, MT developers have created either Rules Based Machine Translation (RBMT) or Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) systems with hands-on coding at the deepest levels of the co...

MT in 2013 is still a complex affair requiring many skills, expertise and understanding that are not commonplace, to enable successful deployment as a productivity enhancing technology for business translation needs. While it has become much easier to build basic custom engines using a variety of Instant Moses solutions or by creating a dictionary for a RbMT, there are still very few who know how to coax MT system output to consistent productivity enhancing levels. Getting some kind of a basic engine up and running is NOT the same thing as having a production-ready post-editor friendly system. There are even fewer who know what to do if the first MT attempt does not work, or is lackluster. Most of these basic/instant MT systems are inferior to basically free online MT from Microsoft and Google. Building long-term productivity and strategic production advantage require much more skill, expertise and experimentation than most LSPs or users have access to, or care to invest in. ...

As machine translation continues to gain momentum, we are seeing many more instances of LSPs and some enterprise users exploring the potential use of the technology in core production work. MT today is still unfortunately quite complex and there are few universally accurate truisms or rules of thumb that replace the need for at least some minimal amount of expertise and understanding. Expertise and knowledge are key requirements for those who wish to use MT successfully in a translation production context. However, there are still many misconceptions about the effective use of the technology. Some of the most common misconceptions include: All MT systems are about the same. Not really, some MT systems that have undergone expert-managed customization and domain focused training can produce dramatically better results than generic systems. This also means that you are not likely to get a very good understanding of the capabilities of an MT technology without doing a real pilot project t...

Machine translation technology has an unfortunate history of overpromising and under delivering. At least 50 years of doing this and sometimes it seems that the torture will never stop. MT enthusiasts continue to make promises that often greatly exceed the realistic possibilities. Recently, in various conversations, I have seen that the level of unwarranted exuberance around the possibilities with the Moses Open Source SMT technology is rising to peak levels. This is especially true in the LSP community. While most technologies go through a single hype cycle, MT seems destined to go through several of these cycles with each new approach and the latest of these is what I call Moses Madness. It has become fashionable of late to build instant DIY MT engines, using tools that help you with the mechanics of running the software that is “Moses” .   While some of these tools greatly simplify the mechanical process of running the Moses software, they do not give you any insight into what ...