Machine translation (MT) is an increasingly popular tool for global content creation, with new services arriving every year. At the same time, Artificial Intelligent (AI) content writing tools are also becoming more widespread.
Could these two technologies spell the end of human global content creators?
Are we reaching a stage where human translation is a thing of the past?
What are the problems associated with MT and AI content tools?
Most importantly, should you use them for your business?
We have written before about how machine translation can replace humans in some specific use cases. Sometimes it is the only option, such as when you need an instantaneous translation for a social media post. In such cases, human translation would be infeasible and people don't expect a perfect translation.
But what about when your translated content needs to present your global company in the best light possible?
In this case, the use of machine translation and artificial intelligence is more complex…
What the rapid growth of AI content writing means for global businesses
It seems you can't go anywhere these days without hearing someone talking about AI content tools. Chatbots and other AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Bing AI, and many others are completely changing how people create content.
Such tools work by using artificially intelligent algorithms to generate content from a given prompt. Through a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, the algorithms are trained using huge amounts of information, known as large language models.
The tools can also be trained on specific types of content and with a focus on specific topics, allowing them to create content that is more tailored to specific use cases and audiences.
There is no denying that AI is becoming a valuable step in the content creation process. Many global businesses are even wondering if these tools could eventually replace their content creation teams… which can be worrying if you are a content creator.
This is a legitimate concern, as it is becoming increasingly easier to create content quickly and efficiently with AI-driven solutions. However, it is highly unlikely that AI content writing will ever truly replace human authors in all cases.
These concerns are very similar to those that we have been seeing for years when people ask about machine translation…
Have machine translation services overtaken human translation?
Before this rapid growth of AI writing tools, we were already looking at the effect of autonomous machine translation tools here at Rubric.
There is no doubt that machine translation services are on the rise. The market for machine translation was valued at $642.6 million in 2023 and is expected to increase 448% by 2028.
The highest growth of this market is in the regions of Asia and Australasia, whilst North America is the largest market overall. The top providers in this space are IBM, Microsoft, and RWS, with companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon getting heavily involved.
With this high level of growth, you might think that machine translation will soon overtake human translation. However, the translation industry as a whole was valued at $39.37 billion in 2020.
In short, machine translation only represents a tiny fraction of the whole translation industry.
Despite all the hype you might have read and heard, there is a long way to go before machine translation overtakes human translation… if it ever does.
Machine translation post-editing: A new job for a new problem
Let's start by looking at machine translation…
Why use machine translation in the first place?
Likely, your motivation for considering machine translation comes down to cost. You're thinking that machine translation will reduce the cost of your translations.
We can't deny that the advertised "cost per word" for machine translation is lower than for human translation. But the true cost of translation is never as simple as just the cost per word.
One factor that affects the cost of machine translation is post-editing.
Post-editing is a process where humans edit the raw output of a machine translation engine to improve the quality of the translation. MTPE, as it is known, didn't exist as a job before machine translation came along.
It adds to the cost and complexity of machine translation projects, but can be a very necessary step in the process. While there are good use-cases for "raw" machine translation, post-editing is often considered a vital step for customer-facing content.
There are two basic types of post-editing:
- Light post-editing — The translator makes minimal changes to ensure the text matches the intended meaning of the source content. This type of post-editing isn't usually suitable for customer-facing content.
- Full post-editing — The translator will make the necessary changes to the text to ensure that the meaning is correct and it uses the required style and tone of the content. You usually need this for customer-facing content.
AI content writing also requires a similar step.
How AI content writing and machine translation fit together
What does it look like when you combine AI content creation and machine translation?
AI content creation can be a beneficial tool at various stages of the content workflow.
Examples include:
- Idea generation — AI can help you to come up with creative content ideas and topics much faster than you could achieve manually. You can also specify, for example, the market that you want to target with your ideas.
- Research ideation — While we don't recommend relying on the accuracy of AI-generated content, the tools can be a good way to generate ideas for further research.
- Content adaptation — A huge benefit of AI content tools is that you can use them to quickly alter content for specific use cases. For example, you could use them to adapt existing content from your product manual for use on your website.
- Quality assurance — Some AI tools can be useful for automatically detecting quality issues in content.
- Content optimization — Finally, AI can be extremely helpful for content optimization. This is the process of ensuring that your content can reach the right audience, including adding relevant meta tags and titles.
Where does machine translation fit alongside these steps?
The main purpose of machine translation is to quickly translate content from one language to another. It can help to streamline your content workflow and scale your content for global markets.
Usually, machine translation sits between the content creation stages – which may or may not include AI — and the quality assurance stage.
It's important to remember that the more AI steps are included in your process, the more you need to focus on human quality assurance. AI tools almost always create at least some errors. Adding errors on top of other errors is a recipe for disaster.
Is machine translation and AI technology good enough?
The fact is that AI technology is not advanced enough to completely replace humans in the process all of the time.
To be blunt, it probably never will be.
Looking at machine translation, the promise of completely automated translations has been around for a long time. At the end of the 1950s, researchers in the United States, Russia, and Western Europe were convinced that machine translation was almost ready. They were confident that high-quality automatic translations of technical documents were just a few years away.
It's now over 60 years later. The technology has certainly advanced. But that promise has yet to be realized.
This pattern has also happened in other areas of the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape. You can see a very similar trend happening in AI as a whole in the 1950s, '70s, and late '80s.
In all these cases, there was a burst of promises and false claims that "AI will soon replace humans." In all cases, what really happened is that the work of the humans who performed those jobs changed. The AI simply became a tool to help them perform their job more efficiently.
Computer automation seldom destroys jobs completely, it just transforms them. This is what is happening now with machine translation and AI content creation.
What this means for you when looking for an AI content creation or machine translation service
What does this all mean for you?
It means that you shouldn't go blindly into your decision to use machine translation and AI.
When you are looking for a service, don't assume that you are going to replace human content writers and translators completely. If you do, you may apply the tools in an inappropriate way or to inappropriate tasks.
A key use case for machine translation is you can use it to translate content that wouldn't otherwise been translated by a human. Sometimes, it is the best strategic decision for a particular type of content. An example is continuous localization where machine translation is extremely valuable — the machine translations act as a placeholder to avoid translation work interrupting the software development workflow.
Just remember to factor in the time and budget for pre-editing, post-editing, and engineering.
The real question: Should your company use machine translation and AI tools?
If you are considering using machine translation and AI content creation, the most important question to ask yourself is this…
Is this tool the right strategic choice for the type of content we are creating and the audience we are creating it for?
When you can answer this question, you will ensure that you are making the best use of your resources. Such tools can become a valuable part of your translation workflow instead of a costly liability.
Not sure how to assess the strategic purpose of your content? If you would like to ask us any questions or arrange a meeting to chat about AI and machine translation, please fill in your query on our contact page.
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