[Lgpolicy] ‘Your United States was normal’: has translation tech really made language learning redundant?

[Francis M. Hult via Lgpolicy]

The Conversation

‘Your United States was normal’: has translation tech really made language
learning redundant?

Every day, millions of people start the day by posting a greeting on social
media. None of them expect to be arrested for their friendly morning ritual.

But that’s exactly what happened to a Palestinian construction worker in
2017, when the caption “يصبحهم” (“good morning”) on his Facebook selfie was
auto-translated as “attack them.”

A human Arabic speaker would have immediately recognized “يصبحهم” as an
informal way to say “good morning”. Not so AI. Machines are notoriously bad
at dealing with variation, a key characteristic of all human languages.

Full story:
https://theconversation.com/your-united-states-was-normal-has-translation-tech-really-made-language-learning-redundant-217665
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