Published By: IEEE Spectrum, 10/3/2016

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Summary

Engineers at Google are upgrading their Google Translate service to use deep learning, which is an artificial intelligence technique. This is the first time this translation method has been used in a large production environment. The update greatly improves the accuracy of translations, increasing Google Translate’s ability to facilitate communication between speakers of different languages.

Extended Discussion Questions

• The new Google Translate algorithm is in some ways more similar to the way a human would naturally translate a sentence. Do you think that artificial intelligence will ever be able to replace human translators?
• In what other areas could algorithms potentially replace humans?
• Why do you think accurate translation of human language is such a difficult task for computers?
• Automatic machine translation (AMT) requires learning from large amounts of parallel (translated) text data for the two target languages. What are some implications of this requirement, in terms of who can benefit from using AMT services to communicate with whom?

Alternative Article

“Deep Learning Boosts Google Translate Tool”
Published By: Nature, 9/27/2016 || View the Article
Provides more context about how deep learning works in general.

Relating This Story to the CSP Curriculum Framework

Global Impact Learning Objectives:

• LO 7.1.1 Explain how computing innovations affect communication, interaction, and cognition.

Global Impact Essential Knowledge:

• EK 7.2.1A Machine learning and data mining have enabled innovation in medicine, business, and science.

Other CSP Big Ideas:

• Idea 4 Algorithms

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