Artificial Intelligence (AI) is constantly pushing the boundaries of what machines are capable of, for instance, the so-called “machine translation” is finally coming of age. It has been reported that the Google Translate app can instantly translate text in 27 languages, and Skype is using neural network technology that mimics the human brain in order to understand human speech and instantly translate from English to Spanish. Some people think that machine translation will eventually replace human translation and thus threaten the continued existence of the professions of translator and interpreter. Others, however, believe that machine translation cannot reach human level translation accuracy and can never replace human translation.
What do you think of the strengths and weaknesses of machine translation in comparison with human translation? Given the accelerating development of AI, what roles can human translators and interpreters still play in the future in the workplace and/or in our social life?
Will AI Replace Human Interpreters?
The past years have witnessed the rapid progress of neural machine translation. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have conducted a series of experiments to create AI products presumably beneficial for people's lives. Machine translation is amid one of those new products based on the AI technology. Admittedly, this new technology has its merits. To illustrate, computers are able to store up to millions of words, which is practically impossible to human. Moreover, with its incomparable speed, computers can translate long text into the targeted language within only a few seconds. Therefore, there are reasons for some to argue that machine translation is nearly equal to human interpreters. However, when it comes to whether AI translators will replace humans, I personally hold negative attitudes.
Initially, let me clarify that my argument is not based on the view the human mind is always superior to machines. The processor speed of modern computers has already been millions of times faster than the speed at which neurons in our brains are able to complete calculations. However, what I really want to highlight is the fact that only human translators can interpret culturally while machine translators again and again fail in this field. People often cannot make sense of the word to word translation as machines cannot comprehend the original text at all. Consequently, it is quite common for the text translated by AI to be corrected manually later on.
Therefore, taking a more realistic view of AI, we can predict that human translators will use machine translation to carry out routine tasks while not being replaced by it. It is feasible for people to use computer-aided translation in their daily life as a work tool which performs repetitive tasks.
In conclusion, though there is little controversy that machine translation is the most powerful device the world has seen, the abilities of the human brain to do literary translation should not be downplayed. In fact, in some respects computers are still unable to surpass human interpreters. Therefore, the interpreters should embrace the artificial intelligence with an open mind and benefit from the adaptive neural machine and automated content enrichment.
本文主要围绕智能翻译展开讨论。题目要求考生就智能翻译的利弊以及未来人类翻译的地位发表看法。第 一段先分析了智能翻译的好处，然后话锋一转，指出人工智能永远无法替代人类翻译。第二段主要讨论人 类翻译的不可替代性以及机器翻译的短板。第三段展望未来，指出人工智能将会成为人类翻译处理重复性 任务的重要工具。最后一段总结全文，强调人类翻译的重要性，但人类翻译应该采取积极的态度对待科 技，把它看作是自己工作的有效工具。