Google's Machine Translation Vs Actual Human Translator: Who Wins?
The ultimate machine vs human showdown!
By Ashley Harris — 24 Jun 2015, 02:36 PM
It's as if Google can't leave well enough alone.
Along with other changes and updates released recently, now they have finished an upgrade of their translation app, which not only includes written text, but an audio translation format as well.
The quality of the translation is open to interpretation, however, so a test was done few months ago that matched the quality of a human translation with that of a Google.
And although it was clear very quickly that Google couldn't match the quality of a human translator, it is also painfully obvious that the abilities of the Google translation has come a long way since it was first introduced in 2001.
In an effort to judge the translations fairly, several criterions were used for the competition. These included grammar and syntax, word choice, as well as overall comprehension and accuracy of the translation. This competition included both written and spoken language to be translated and judged.
As the infographic below shows, Google's translator works better in some areas than others. For professional, word-for-word use, however, it fell far short, with poor word choice and rough grammar.
For example, in terms of the overall gist of the translated materials, Google did a good job. If you wanted to get a good idea of what the material was about, Google could give you what you were searching for.
While it might be true that a human translator might not fit into your pocket or sit very comfortably on your desk, the human touch is the charm when it comes to good translation. In comparison, a human translator was much better at being able to capture the intended tone and style of the documents than was the Google translation.
And this doesn't consider things like colloquialisms, which often come across in even the most formal documents. Although Google will provide a translation, it won't come across as smoothly as a human translator.
The bottom line: Google's translator is great for certain purposes
If, for example, you want to know what a website you have stumbled upon in a given language is telling you, but for anything beyond that, especially where good grammar and an accurate interpretation of intent is needed, keep your bets on the human translator. Your money for the human touch is much better spent than with Google.
