From: Stevertigo
Mach trans isnt supposed to be as good as people are.
It cant by definition ever be -- because machines are
machines, and people are not...
Er. Machines are machines by definition, but it doesn't necessarily
follow that machine translation can't ever be as good as human
translation.
One fallacious assumption is that machines are not people--and can't
ever be.
My guess would be that MT equivalence to HT for everyday purposes
(business, science, etc.) is near, and doesn't require machines being
people. To get equivalence in the realm of literature/poetry translation
would probably require AI, and that's probably a while in the future.
Probably within our lifetimes, though. Perhaps even using the nth
generation of Wikipedia somehow.