Interesting article on AI for Chinese to English translation.

[thechamp]

Hi everyone,

 

Just an interesting article on Chinese to English translation with the help of AI.

 

I thought it might spark an interesting discussion.

 

https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/machine-translation-news-test-set-human-parity/

[li3wei1]

There's a link to try out one of their prototype translators. I stuck in a bit of news, and got this:

 

"With the continuous deepening of Belt and Road policy communication, facilities interconnection, trade facilitation, financial interconnection and people-to-people interconnection, Belt and Road news media exchanges and cooperation have flourished. In order to further facilitate information exchange and resource sharing among Belt and Road news media, and enhance people-to-people friendly exchanges and cultural exchanges and mutual learning among relevant countries, we will promote Belt and Road cooperation with the spirit of peace, openness, tolerance, mutual learning and mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit and mutual benefit and mutual benefit."

 

It's pretty good, but I think that last sentence could use a thesaurus.

[somethingfunny]

Do you have the original text you use liwei?  It's funny, it's in English, but reads like a piece of Chinese news.  i.e. Very technical and pretty boring.

[Lu]

On one hand, not surprising that they went with news, because there is a lot of translated news around I suppose (and more is added every day). On the other hand, what I always found the hardest with news is that it's always throwing in new words.

 

Chinese articles about national politics almost read as machine-generated text anyway, so as a test I tried the first paragraph of the first article of local news of the 北京青年报.

昨天是3·15国际消费者权益日，中央电视台“3·15”晚会以“共建秩序 共享品质”为主题，曝光案例聚焦农村市场和公共安全两大领域，对“添加剂料汁”兑出山寨饮料大量流入农村市场；“大众途锐”怕淋雨，发动机频现报废；珠宝店里“一等奖”陷阱等五大案例进行了曝光。在消费预警环节，晚会针对食物相克、季节性食品等谣言，用试验数据进行了辟谣。

 

Got two translations, not sure which one I'm supposed to look at:

Yesterday was3 / 15International Consumer Rights Day, CCTV "3 / 15" evening to "build order to share quality" as the theme, exposure cases focused on the rural market and public security two major areas, the "additive juice" out of the shanzhai beverage into the rural market in large quantities; "Volkswagen Touaree" afraid of rain, the engine is often scrapped; jewelry stores, "first-prize trap" five cases of food and other early warning party, exposure of the rumors, exposure in the exposure of the data.

 

Yesterday was 3 15 International Consumer Rights Day, CCTV "3 15" party to "build order sharing quality" as the theme, exposure cases focused on rural markets and public safety, the two major areas of "additive juice" to a large number of cottage drinks into the rural market; "The public sharp" fear of rain, the engine is scrapped; jewelry store " The first prize "traps and other five major cases were exposed." In the consumer early warning link, the party for food phase, seasonal food and other rumors, using test data for the rumor.

 

While both are very serviceable translations, informative about the content, this is still a far cry from 'equivalent to human translators'.

 

Just for comparison, here is Google Translate, which has its own good and bad parts:

Yesterday was the 3rd of 15th International Consumer Rights Day, the CCTV “3·15” party took the theme of “co-construction order sharing quality”, and the exposure case focused on the two major areas of rural markets and public safety, and the “additive sauce” was cashed out. A large number of cottage beverages have flowed into the rural market; the “Touareg Touareg” has been exposed to rain, and the engine has been scrapped; the first prize in the jewelry store has been exposed. In the early warning of consumption, the party conducted rumours based on test data in response to food rumors, seasonal foods, and other rumours.

[roddy]

14 hours ago, li3wei1 said:

mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit, mutual benefit and mutual benefit and mutual benefit."

 

That’s what happens when your Foreign Ministry person needs rebooted. I love the way it starts putting ands in toward the end. 

[li3wei1]

Here's the original:

随着“一带一路”政策沟通、设施联通、贸易畅通、资金融通、民心相通不断深入，“一带一路”新闻媒体交流合作蓬勃发展。为进一步便利“一带一路”新闻媒体的信息交换和资源共享，增进相关国家民众友好交往和文化交流互鉴，我们将秉持以和平合作、开放包容、互学互鉴、互利共赢为核心的丝路精神，以共商、共建、共享为宗旨，坚持相互尊重、平等互利、自愿自主的原则，共同推进“一带一路”新闻合作联盟建设，推动媒体互利合作与共赢发展。