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AS AI PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF TRANSLATION, WE ASK EXPERTS IN UAE IF HUMAN TRANSLATION EFFORTS WILL BECOME OBSOLETE
Time was when you took along a hefty edition titled ‘100 Common
Phrases in Italian’ (or some other language depending on your destination) on your foreign holiday to help you communicate. These days, all it takes is an app. Once impossible to imagine, technology that allows people to communicate instantly with each other in different languages is now a reality.
For example, do you wish to convert foreign language text into the language you read? A host of options, including apps such as iTranslate and Translate Voice will help you do this. Want to know what that signpost means on your travels? Google Translate app’s camera function will help you. Just point and know.
Experts say AI-powered translation will change the way we live. Schools could gain access to education that would otherwise be foreign to them and politicians could exercise their diplomatic flair with a host of nations. According to Dr Saihong Li, professor of translation studies at the University of Stirling, UK, translation could become so advanced that people won’t even know translation is taking place. “Translation technology really plays a crucial role in politics, travel and in everyday life.”
At the 7th Abu Dhabi Translation Conference held in the UAE last November, one of the workshops was themed: ‘Can a Robot Replace the Translator?’
Human vs machine
So, can a robot replace the human translator? The answer is not a straightforward yes or no.
According to Dr Dipankar Kundu, CEO and Founder of the Dubai-based Dar Al Marjaan Translation Services, Neural Machine Translations (NMTs), an AI-powered software that works as a language translator, can definitely help but can never supersede the skills of human translators.
“The neural network is a system that can be trained to recognise patterns in data, thereby transforming input data in one language into a desired output in another language,” explains Dr Kundu, who has a PhD in Arabic literature.
“Before any translation can happen, however, the human engineers need to decide the architecture of the network. The human engineers are technology masters but are not masters in languages and translation. Also, the guesswork of input data to output data is not only difficult but leads to erroneous translations.”
And herein lies a world of hits and misses. The world of translation is vast and infinitely complex. On the translation spectrum, you have everyday phrases such as ‘How are you?’ ‘Where is the airport?’ at one end to the highly complex medical literature, legalese, literary allusions, idioms and context, poetic nuances and old manuscripts at the other. Plus, there is the matter of dialects.
Says Dr Kundu, “For example, Arabic has more than 30 dialects. In French, there are 28 dialects. Similarly, every language has a number of dialects. The translator needs to know the target readers and have knowledge about their culture. NMT cannot do this.”
Take the field of literature. “Literature is an ornamental form of writing characterised by extensive use of idioms and figures of speech,” says Dr Kundu.
“The literal meaning of an idiom is definite when it is discrete (or on its own) but gives different connotations [in] contextual use. A figure of speech needs to be interpreted according to the story line. NMTs will never have the ability to understand the context,” he says. Plus, NMTs will fail to make value judgments, he adds.
Similarly, the translations of Old Manuscripts is a challenge that is fit perhaps only for the human brain, says Dr Kundu. “The study of old manuscripts have made available to human kind a lot of beneficial information about the past be it in science, technology, history, medicine, civilisation, architecture ....
“Since, all the data collected by AI-powered software is from the web, NMT cannot understand these documents due to the works being handwritten, of primitive script, unfamiliar grammar, syntax, semantics and vocabulary and [there is] not enough data available on the web to support translation of such a language and text of such nature,” he says.
Even in the field of science, “every day there are new inventions and discoveries. Translation of new scientific data by NMTs will fail as NMT is an AI-powered software and can only identify and translate data that has been fed in,” says Dr Kundu.
AI’s expanding role
Matteo Ippoliti, Founder and General Manager of LangPros Dubai believes that when it comes to language learning, AI is forging ahead. “AI will play a major role when it comes to learning new languages, communicating in a foreign country, translating documents or interpreting during events,” he says.
The tourism and travel industry already has apps using Machine Translation (MT) and AI helping travellers and tourists. “But at the moment, these apps would work mainly for basic conversation and not for complex communication situations.”
Over the past few years, there has been unprecedented progress in the area of machine translation especially with Neural Machine Translation, says Ippoliti, which is employed by tech giants such as Google or Microsoft.
“Machines are actually able to form neural networks and learn and improve the quality of translation, in many fields. Despite this progress, the human component is still necessary.”
Mastering a foreign language for translation and interpreting means knowing much more than just the language, says Ippoliti. “Translators and interpreters should have deep knowledge of the culture and the history of the people who speak a particular language. They should understand nuances, references and other important elements of human communication that machines still cannot grasp,” he says.
Language and feeling
A human brain’s understanding and perception of the world and its reality is far superior to a machine’s grasp of this domain, according to Ippoliti.
“A machine, at least to this day, still cannot reach [there]. Figurative language, irony, sarcasm, poetry, are still out of a machine’s capability as they cannot feel what humans feel when using language. This does not mean we will never get to a point where machines will be able to feel, but it will take time and it will be a very different world, a new era for mankind,” he says.
“At the moment, we are still far away from creating a machine that can behave and feel reality like a human. Since a language is used to express this unique relationship between humans and the world, sometimes machine translation may lead to major mistakes and to embarrassing or funny results.”
The human component, according to Ippoliti, is still indispensable to eliminate mistakes, adjust meaning and style and optimise the result for a highquality translation.
What are the most challenging languages to translate? “Those spoken by a limited number of people, such as regional languages or “dialects”. For instance, aboriginal languages in Australia or certain tribal languages in Africa,” says Ippoliti.
A figure of speech needs to be interpreted according to the story line. NMTs will never have the ability to understand the context.”
Dr Dipankar Kundu | Dar Al Marjaan Translation Services, Dubai
Machines are actually able to form neural networks and learn and improve the quality of translation, in many fields. Despite this progress, the human component is still necessary.”
Matteo Ippoliti | LangPros Dubai