“Does Google Translate dream of electric sheep?”

The question often is, are machine translation (MT) engines our friends or foes? This presentation will not try to solve this question; after all, they (just like any technology) can be both – good servants, but bad masters. Instead, we will focus on the main points often used as arguments in favour of MT engines, and what are the real or potential risks behind these arguments.

Are MT engines here merely to help translators work faster? Are developers of MT engines promising more than they can deliver? Will all translators end up working as post-editors? Can post-editing affect the perception of language by individual translators? Is there any conflict of professional interests? Like so many things, the answers are not only black and white. By the end of this presentation, attendees should have a better idea about possible answers to these questions.

We will also take a look at some recent publications in the field, not only about machine translation specifically, but also at those discussing current technological progress in general, to examine how relevant their points are to the translation industry and to what extent they may represent a kind of hasty generalization. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to share their views on the topic.

Tomas Mosler, MITI, is an English to Czech translator based in the Czech Republic. He has been working as a freelance translator since 2005, specialising in IT (including localisation), marketing and business translations. Tomas also takes a keen interest in the ethical aspects of translation, in various questions surrounding machine translation as a concept and in marketing strategies for translators (his blog is available at www.englishczechtranslator.com/blog). He is a Qualified Member of the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (UK) and the Head of the Czech Republic Chapter of IAPTI.