Prof Nigel Shadbolt predicts next 25 years will bring instant language translation – and a rise in ‘lifelogging’ and cyberwar too
Though the idea of the “Babelfish” – a thing able to translate between any two languages on the fly – was created by the author Douglas Adams as a handy solution to the question of how intergalactic travellers could understand each other, it could be reality within 25 years. At least, that is, for human language.
Prof Nigel Shadbolt, a close associate of the web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says that the idea of automatic machine translation “on the fly” is achievable before the world wide web turns 50.
Shadbolt also forecasts that future changes to the web will mean people will be “connected all the time” to medical diagnostic systems – but also that search companies including Google and China’s Baidu may face challenges as web use shifts from the desktop to handheld and mobile devices.
Having first used the web in 1993, via an early version of the Mosaic browser while on a visit to Canada, Shadbolt now thinks that it opens up huge possibilities for artificial intelligence systems built by connecting computers across the web – so-called cloud computing – that will be able to enhance daily life. More.
See: The Guardian
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Spain
Local time: 10:30
English to Spanish
+ ...
Translation on the fly achieved during the next 25 years? Google Translate can do it already.
Accurate translation, you say? That is different. I think that we would need a real AI for that, something able to understand the context of the text, plays on words, cultural references and the like. And that, is a completely different challenge.
Serbia
Local time: 10:30
English to Serbian
+ ...
Translation on the fly achieved during the next 25 years? Google Translate can do it already.
Accurate translation, you say? That is different. I think that we would need a real AI for that, something able to understand the context of the text, plays on words, cultural references and the like. And that, is a completely different challenge.
Agreed. It's hard enough for humans to produce accurate translation between two languages, let alone any machine without advanced AI.
United States
Local time: 04:30
Russian to English
+ ...
Translation on the fly achieved during the next 25 years? Google Translate can do it already.
Accurate translation, you say? That is different. I think that we would need a real AI for that, something able to understand the context of the text, plays on words, cultural references and the like. And that, is a completely different challenge.
Agreed. It's hard enough for humans to produce accurate translation between two languages, let alone any machine without advanced AI.
Absolutely--just a pipe dream--like flying monkeys.
Netherlands
Local time: 10:30
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Translation on the fly achieved during the next 25 years? Google Translate can do it already.
No, it can't. If you read the article, you'll see that they're talking about the translation of speech, not text.
Spain
Local time: 10:30
English to Spanish
+ ...
I read the article, and I knew that it was about speech. I just supposed that it can't be that hard to feed Google Translate with a speech recognition program.
After a bit of googling, I have just found that it seems to be already possible:
Everybody’s talking (and translating) with Chrome
I haven't tried it yet, though.
I read the article, and I knew that it was about speech. I just supposed that it can't be that hard to feed Google Translate with a speech recognition program.
After a bit of googling, I have just found that it seems to be already possible:
Everybody’s talking (and translating) with Chrome
I haven't tried it yet, though.
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