Google translation, the death of translators?

With Google Translation, the French translation market is undergoing many changes. As a result of technological advances, many are announcing that artificial intelligence will take the place of men in many professions. The translation is not spared. In particular, there are difficulties in the market, particularly related to the arrival of new and effective tools to meet the same need. Computer-assisted translation and software technologies are evolving very rapidly, leaving little time for biotranslation, human translation, to adapt. However, the sector does not seem to have said its last word.

Google translation poses difficulties to biotransduction

The French translation market is quite difficult to take into account. Indeed, there are quite a few studies on this subject to date. However, it is estimated that the latter consists of about 5,000 to 6000 independent translators, and about 400 to 500 translation companies. (1) Very uneven, it focuses mainly around large players, surrounded by smaller ones. Indeed, only a dozen companies have large turnovers, and have more than 50 employees such as Tradutec, (2) which owns more than 13 translation companies, the others being much smaller.

According to the independent company Common Sense Advisory, which publishes annual reports on the global language services market, the French translation services market grew by 1% in 2018. However, this increase is a far cry from global growth of about 4.7%. (1)
The market for human translators is being undermined. This is due to the development of large companies, but also machine translation services and assisted translation software, which offer instant and free services online. However, the need for translation into the English language in particular is growing with globalization.

Google translate foreign languages
Will artificial intelligence surpass humans for translation?

Many individuals and professionals need these translation services. They will often prefer to use free services like Google Translation. However, biotranslation does not let itself be cut down and highlights its expertise and human know-how as a competitive advantage. Even though software is becoming more efficient, it seems that nothing can quite replace human work. This is how translation comes face to face with a choice between free and quality, while rethinking adapted rates. In Bordeaux, the agency Aquitaine Translation (3) offers its translation services with certified translators for professionals as well as individuals.

Google translation to instant translation

Among the evolutions of automatic translators that overshadow human translators, we find in particular the latest features of Google translate. Since March 2020; the online translator can translate long speeches instantly. This is a feature that users have been highly anticipated for, since previously they could only translate short sentences. This update allows users to translate speeches into 7 languages at the moment. These 7 languages include English, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai and Hindi. (4)

Another new feature on Google’s list is The Bud Pixels. (5) These headphones allow, when connected to a Pixel or Android phone, to listen to a person in another language while benefiting from the Google translation. This translation does so continuously directly into the device. Thus, the user understands the conversation in real time without speaking the language of the person he is talking to. He can simply respond to him using conversation mode. These technological wonders greatly simplify real-time communications, sending conversations instantly to the Google Translate service.

It can be said that translators have experienced difficult times in the face of the development of new technologies, which, as one might think, have gradually replaced their work. Thus, Google Translation now seems to put a point of honor to translation in real time. It allows users to follow conversations in a language that is foreign to them. Human translators, on the other hand, argue for the quality of their work, which is often the case that automatic translations cannot match.

Towards a translation less faithful to local expressions?

The big question when using an automatic translator… Is to know to what extent the transcription from one language to another is faithful to the original purpose. Because depending on the country and the language, some expressions do not translate “literally”, which sometimes distorts the words. These famous idiomatic expressions do not have an equivalence in another language. Automatic translators are not able to find an equivalent.

Also, to carry out complete translations… Translations that are not limited to a sentence or a small group of words… Using a professional translator, who speaks the language perfectly, is a real plus. Man still has a margin ahead of artificial intelligence; But in the face of technical and technological progress, we can ask ourselves the question: for how much longer?

Sources:

(1) Concentration of the French translation market… and the world? Overtheword

(2) Tradutec

(3) Aquitaine Translation

(4) Mathilde Rochefort – Google Translate finally translates long speeches in real time – Century Digital – 18 March 2020

(5) Buds Pixels – Google

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