We’re in a localization and globalization market now where more words are translated every day through machine translation than what was translated in the entire human language corpus in the past.
Not only does such a massive amount of machine translation radically change the role of human translators, it also creates a whole new range of issues that impact the translation and globalization paradigm itself.
And one of the most important issues is ethics.
In an era when entire translations or at least substantial parts of them are often done by machine instead of by professional translators, what does it mean to provide “services” from an ethical perspective as far as translators and LSPs are concerned?
In this week’s episode of Globally Speaking, our hosts Renato Beninatto and M.W. Stevens discuss this very important issue that affects everyone involved in the language industry—both providers and buyers of translation services alike.
Major topics include:
- What needs to be disclosed to buyers and what doesn’t?
- Are language professionals now selling a product or a service?
- When are translators in breach of a client contract by using machine translation, and when are they not?
- Why machine translation is unlikely to ever replace the need for professionally trained translators.
- How do LSPs charge for projects in which machine translation plays a major role?
Comments about this article
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:53
Member (2017)
Bulgarian to English
+ ...
Hi all,
This was a really great podcast, very informative and interesting.
Keep it up.
Thanks for sharing this.
United States
Local time: 22:53
Member (2008)
Spanish to English
+ ...
In repair Manuals one lists spark plugs for a diesel, the grammar is wrong, and there are 3 engines with the same displacement, made by 3 different manufacturers and the difference escaped the translator. The book was never r... See more
In repair Manuals one lists spark plugs for a diesel, the grammar is wrong, and there are 3 engines with the same displacement, made by 3 different manufacturers and the difference escaped the translator. The book was never reviewed by a competent mechanic after translation. By omissions of one word in complex 3 or 4 word terms, errors accumulate, and compound, machine translations and internet info read by non experts, soon see false info created.
Example, a manual says to coat bottom of ignition manual with di-electric grease. Not EVERY ignition module should be coated with grease, or heat conducting silver paste, depends on the location, electrical connections need di-electric, external modules cooled by air channels should be treated differently. But Machine translation may have created a lot of false info and confusion. They say good mechanics do NOT WRITE BOOKS. And most Certified Master Mechanics, including myself are only good at taking tests. ▲ Collapse
Brazil
Local time: 01:53
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Suppose a translation agency got hired to translate for 20¢/word.
CASE A: A translator does it in the old way, with or without a CAT tool, and gets the same 10¢/word from the agency.
CASE B: The translator shoots the source text through Google Translate, does PEMT, and still gets the same... See more
Suppose a translation agency got hired to translate for 20¢/word.
CASE A: A translator does it in the old way, with or without a CAT tool, and gets the same 10¢/word from the agency.
CASE B: The translator shoots the source text through Google Translate, does PEMT, and still gets the same 10¢/word from the agency.
CASE C: The agency shoots the source text through Google Translate, and forcefully hires the translator to do PEMT for 3¢/word.
The ethics - or lack thereof - lies in the translation agency charging the translator 7¢/word to shoot the source text through free online Google Translate.
If Google charged, say, 5¢/word for automatic translation, these PEMT-pushing agencies would reconsider. ▲ Collapse
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