Combiner l’IA et l’intelligence humaine dans la traduction (en anglais)

Last week I post-edited a very technical text. The effort was considerable because I had to research all the terms of e.g. ILO conventions and found that the machine translation had transcribed them over word for word. I also had to standardise the terminology in the text – and there were many terms that had to be adapted. Many clients are not aware of how time-consuming such corrections or revisions are, and some even believe that they can use freely available machine translation tools to create target texts themselves in order to save costs without the need for basic post-editing.

The use of translators and post-editors continues to be essential

Delegating such post-editing tasks to professionals is the best, if not the only, solution. Translators with a lot of experience and expertise can make targeted use of various technologies right from the start. These include, for example, translation memories. They are tried and tested tools that have accompanied our profession for decades, enabling terminology recognition and concordance searches. Through the targeted use of these tools, translators can achieve high-quality results much faster.

Integrating AI tools into the translation process is undoubtedly beneficial in many cases. Automated translation systems can help reduce time and complete basic translation tasks. They can serve as a starting point and relieve translators of valuable preparatory work. However, these tools have their limits when it comes to creating consistent terminology. This is where human translators come in.

Human intelligence with expertise, creativity and experience is irreplaceable when it comes to ensuring the quality and consistency of a translation. Experienced post-editors can review and critically evaluate the machine translation and make the necessary adjustments. They can ensure that terminology is consistent, specific technical terms are correctly used and context is correctly captured. This is the only way to produce a precise and comprehensible translation that meets the requirements of a target text.

The combination of both intelligences makes sense

Combining artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence (MI) does not mean that AI replaces MI or vice versa. On the contrary, when combined purposefully and professionally by a human, they complement each other and create synergies.

Overall, our clients should realise that working with professional translators and post-editors is the best choice in the long run. Delegating translation tasks to professionals allows them to target different technologies from the outset and thus achieve optimal results. High-quality translation with consistent terminology is crucial to communicate their messages effectively and avoid misunderstandings.

In the long run, it is worth paying for post-editing!

When it comes to very large demanding and technical texts, clients should rely on the combination of AI and human intelligence. This way, they can ensure that inconsistencies and errors do not run through the entire content, that their translations meet the highest quality standards and that their messages are conveyed clearly and understandably to the target audience.

Author: Silvia Cerrella Bauer, Managing Director CB Multilingual LLC