FYI, pertaining to this thread, the latest on Slashdot article (and
associated punditry) should be interesting reading.
Translation Software That Learns by Reading
redcone writes "New Scientist is reporting that translation software
that develops an understanding of languages by scanning through
thousands of previously translated documents has been released by U.S.
researchers. According to the article "The translated documents used
to teach the translation algorithms can be electronic, on paper, or
even audio files. The system is not only faster than other methods,
but also better suited to tackling less common languages and the
unusual vocabulary found in specialised or technical texts."
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/24/0111259
-Andrew (User:Fuzheado)
On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 15:40:31 -0800, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
Delirium wrote:
Sabine Cretella wrote:
Never ever a machine will be able to translate
correctly - not now,
not tomorrow, not in 100 years - it's a dream many have - sorry, I
must destroy it.
A pedantic point, but this is assuming that machines are not capable
of human-level intelligence. Many in the AI community would beg to
differ. =]
(Although whether it'll be 10, 20, 50, 100, or 500 years before an
artificial intelligence can learn things like languages with the same
or better aptitude as humans is a matter of debate.)
I would call Sabine's comment realistic rather than pedantic. I realize
that technophiles dream of these artificial solutions, but the best they
can realistically hope for is competent interpretation of technical
material. When it comes to metaphor technophiles are playing in the
right field of dreams. (I wonder how a machine would translate that into
the language of people who know nothing about baseball.)
Ec
_______________________________________________
Wikipedia-l mailing list
Wikipedia-l(a)Wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
--
Andrew Lih, Assistant Professor
Journalism and Media Studies Centre
University of Hong Kong
Email: alih(a)hku.hk | Web:
http://jmsc.hku.hk/faculty/alih
AOL IM: fuzheado | ICQ: 231894253
Yahoo Messenger: andrew_lih | MSN Messenger: andrew_lih(a)msn.com