Elemental Truths

I've been thinking a lot about how we can fundamentally change our perspective on machine translation. Of course, we've already experienced a long and sometimes painful evolution in how we (whoever "we" refers to) view machine translation. (The simple fact that some of you find that statement upsetting goes to show that "we" doesn't include everyone, and there may have been many different evolutions.)

Here's what I think "many of us" (better?) would somehow agree to: Machine translation is not a replacement for professional translators (everyone nods), but it can be a helpful technology for the professional translator, if used appropriately (some will somberly shake their heads). The "if-used-appropriately" clause depends very much on your language combination, the kind of material you translate, the type of clients you work for, and the variety and quality of MT engines you have access to. It also naturally depends on how skilled you are in selecting the appropriate kinds of technology and using them proficiently. Based on my experience (which naturally is as limited as anyone's), post-editing of machine translation has not made me more productive (or a better translator), whereas using machine translation as an on-and-off helpful repository of suggestions of fragments for my translations has proved to be very efficient.

So, there is that. But it seems to me that every time a new development in machine translation happens and the news is inevitably covered a thousandfold in the mainstream media, our productive "arrangement" with MT quickly starts to crumble. A case in point is the ongoing spate of stories about neural machine translation, which left many translators once again doubting their future in translation.

This weekend I visited the Hallie Ford Museum in Salem, Oregon, where I was struck by a painting titled "Western Vanguard" by the late artist Michael Daily of Seattle (see above). In the later part of his life, Daily "tried to reduce the landscape to the basic elements of horizon, water, light and atmosphere" (from the description of the painting).

Standing in front of the vibrant painting, it struck me that this is what we need to do as well. We need to go back to the basic elements to really understand what we're talking about.

When we speak about translation, we're talking about communication with an added level of complexity. (Intelligent) communication is one of the unshakable cornerstones that makes us distinctly human (yes, even prairie dogs may have a language and -- according to the strangest of all strange news releases -- artificial intelligence will help us to understand dolphin language by 2021, but still...). This is exactly why the tech community has tried so intently since the 1950s to "crack that nut" -- because it's the hardest of all nuts to crack. Once the computer knows how to understand human-composed text and newly compose it accurately in another language, artificial intelligence equals human intelligence.

But when that nut is finally cracked (or maybe I should say "that Pandora's box is opened"), unemployment is the very least of our worries.

We have a tremendously safe occupation as compared to virtually anything. The public doesn't understand this partly because they intuitively understand the challenge of machine translation, so it's thrilling to see computers try to translate and do it increasingly better. But we're partly to blame. We ourselves don't understand MT fully, so we fail to communicate these elemental truths that need to be communicated.

So, let's take hold of these "elements" and follow Michael Dailey's lead in communicating them. Not necessarily to hang them up in art galleries (though there's nothing wrong with that!), but to communicate their essence in equally stunning and convincing ways.

We'll need to communicate with each other, including with those in our "industry" who use MT as an excuse to exert price pressure (a logic that simply doesn't hold up!), as well as with the public at large. It's an easy and marvelous story to tell (especially because it'll make you look really good).

From: The Tool Box Journal. Subscribe at www.internationalwriters.com/toolkit