Machine Translation

What is machine translation?

Machine translation is the first real-world application of NLP. It uses computational linguistics to allow machines to translate text or speech from one language to another.

An example would be Google Translate that has dramatically improved over the last few years. Not only does it provide translations, but it also chooses the correct word form and offers synonyms when possible. Another interesting example of machine translation is the program TIDES, whose primary goal is to automate text translation and summarization. The program is of great interest to the U.S. military in the Middle East. The focus is on understanding local languages. It will make the communication between military members and civilians as quick as possible. 

Why is it important?

Machine translation is aimed to translate texts from one language to another in seconds, which opens lots of possibilities. Apart from usual translators, machine translation is widely used in social media and on various websites. So, if your business allows customers from other countries, it might be a good idea to implement an automated translation service on your website.