| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Has your opinion on the use of machine translation changed in the last 5 - 10 years? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Has your opinion on the use of machine translation changed in the last 5 - 10 years?".
View the poll results »
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My opinion about MT hasn’t changed. I still think it’s like shooting myself in the foot. That being said, I have used Deepl very occasionally (when I am very tired) as a very rough draft just to speed the typing up a bit…
| | | | Baran Keki 
Türkiye
Local time: 21:14
Member
English to Turkish
It is increase 
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 20:14
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Well, obviously a bit | Aug 8, 2022 |
Well, obviously as machine translation improved, my opinion would have changed a bit, but my attitude towards it hasn't changed. I've been using machine translation in my work for pretty much the past decade and it's been great. I don't think my translation quality suffered at all (at least not as a result of me using machine translation).
However, a lot more mediocre translators are now using machine translation, and machine translation has improved dramatically, so I do get to s... See more Well, obviously as machine translation improved, my opinion would have changed a bit, but my attitude towards it hasn't changed. I've been using machine translation in my work for pretty much the past decade and it's been great. I don't think my translation quality suffered at all (at least not as a result of me using machine translation).
However, a lot more mediocre translators are now using machine translation, and machine translation has improved dramatically, so I do get to see a lot more mediocre translations that are probably the direct result of having machine translation available. But that simply means that the types of mistakes that weak translators make have changed -- you've always had weak translators, but now they make a different set of mistakes, due to their use of machine translation. It doesn't really affect my revision/editing work... only the types of mistakes that I have to correct, have changed.
Rates are somewhat under pressure because machine translation is now built-in to most online translation systems and even offline CAT tools, and so a certain class of translation agency tends to try to win more clients by offering even lower rates, which they then expect the translator to absorb.
This just means that the honeymoon period (where I was able to use machine translation without being discounted for it) is now coming to an end. This is similar to the CAT tool honeymoon period of about a decade ago, where most clients didn't know about CAT tools and we enjoyed higher productivity without being discounted for it, until clients wisened up.
[Edited at 2022-08-08 09:45 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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As a literary translator, I still prefer to use my brain and requested input from other translators, as well as clarifications from the original authors, rather than any machine.
[Edited at 2022-08-08 12:34 GMT]
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the same opinion as 30 years ago: investing in certain parts and materials, your car won't go faster, but will serve longer (I mean Translators' health) and with higher reliability
there are other, non-linguistic ways to speed up and widen multi-language communication (standartisation, use of cliches, templates, etc.). And MT is purely linguistic tool
[Edited at 2022-08-09 06:44 GMT]
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member for the following reason: Empty post |
Barbara Cochran, MFA wrote:
As a literary translator, I still prefer to use my brain and requested input from other translators, rather than any machine.
Also for texts that involve marketing or transcreation.
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It's much better than it was, and it's clearly going to win most of the market before long.
Samuel Murray wrote:
the CAT tool honeymoon period of about a decade ago, where most clients didn't know about CAT tools and we enjoyed higher productivity without being discounted for it, until clients wisened up.
I still do. Just saying.
| | | | Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 20:14
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
Most commercially available MT engines are still completely incompetent, and nobody apart from actual translators appears to use DeepL. If clients actually used DeepL to MT their texts, I would probably even consider entering the post-editing game, but I am certainly not giving a single cent of discount on the word salad produced by the MTs clients actually use. Some of the output is actually worse than what one gets for free on Bing Translate.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:14
Member (2008)
Italian to English
ProZ.com Staff wrote: This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Has your opinion on the use of machine translation changed in the last 5 - 10 years?". View the poll results »
I'm not sure if I have an opinion, or how much I care.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 21:14
Member
English to Turkish
Alex Lichanow wrote:
and nobody apart from actual translators appears to use DeepL. If clients actually used DeepL to MT their texts, I would probably even consider entering the post-editing game
What clients are you talking about? Do you mean to say that the translation agencies don't know about DeepL? Is it like a secret?
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Alex Lichanow
Germany
Local time: 20:14
Member (2020)
English to German
+ ...
Baran Keki wrote:
What clients are you talking about? Do you mean to say that the translation agencies don't know about DeepL? Is it like a secret?
I am talking more about end clients that use their own MT before submitting their jobs to agencies. I used to work for a major B2B IT provider that used Microsoft MT on XTM. Seriously, Microsoft should have all reason to be ashamed of the utter nonsense their MT engine produced.
One of my current IT end clients uses their own MT engine for purely technical files (not for marketing texts at least), but is fully aware of the sub-par quality of the output, so they still pay the full no-match word rate for all MT.
I am sure agencies are fully aware of DeepL, so are probably at least some employees of end clients, but they simply don't use it for whatever reason.
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I have been exposed the MT output for more than 30 years. Recently, I have been a big improvement. By has been particularly impressed by DeepL.
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I still believe machine translation will fundamentally change the translation landscape, making the traditional human translators obsolete as their skillsets are not suitable for the new requirements. A translation degree in college will be useless. Just like many years ago professionals use typists to do the typing for them, but now they type their letters themselves; translators will go the same way as typists went, professionals (or their assistants) will be able to put together a decent docu... See more I still believe machine translation will fundamentally change the translation landscape, making the traditional human translators obsolete as their skillsets are not suitable for the new requirements. A translation degree in college will be useless. Just like many years ago professionals use typists to do the typing for them, but now they type their letters themselves; translators will go the same way as typists went, professionals (or their assistants) will be able to put together a decent document with the assistance of machine translation (which is improving everyday, unlike human translators who never improve if given another ten thousand years) without the need to involve human translators whose skills will only deteriorate due to a shrinking market depriving them of opportunities to grow step by step. Some may argue that there are professionals whose typing skills are so awful that they really need the help from a skilled professional typist, but alas, skilled professional typists have long gone, they are history, they are a plant that can no longer grow from today's soil.
[Edited at 2022-08-18 18:26 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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