Quality of Amazon's NMT system "Amazon Translate"? Thread poster: Hans Lenting
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| | | Another one? | Apr 17, 2018 |
They're springing up like mushrooms...
At any rate, although I haven't tried it, I guess all of the "post-editors" working for Amazon now should have a pretty good idea about its quality. I've read several posts from them on these fora, so there should be quite a few around who have been probably using this MT engine without even realizing it.
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | Interesting ... | Apr 17, 2018 |
Mirko Mainardi wrote:
They're springing up like mushrooms...
At any rate, although I haven't tried it, I guess all of the "post-editors" working for Amazon now should have a pretty good idea about its quality. I've read several posts from them on these fora, so there should be quite a few around who have been probably using this MT engine without even realizing it.
That's an interesting remark. Would be nice if they chimed in.
Since Amazon sells a lot of technical products, I'm hoping for a nice NMT-driven 'illustrated dictionary'  .
| | | | | Optimization for short strings and context sensitive MT? | Apr 17, 2018 |
Hans Lenting wrote: Since Amazon sells a lot of technical products, I'm hoping for a nice NMT-driven 'illustrated dictionary' .
Every now and then I see some REALLY BAD product descriptions, especially for shorter strings and isolated terms, which make up a good deal of product descriptions, so I guess this fantastic new NMT is not that smart either, after all...
E.g.
IPS LCD touchscreen capacitivo, 16M colori, 5.15 pollici (~ 71,4% schermo-a-corpo ratio), 1080 x 1920 pixel (~ 428 ppi densità di pixel)
Android 7.1.1 (torrone), Octa-core (4x2,45 GHz Kryo & 4x1,9 GHz Kryo)
64 GB, 6 GB RAM
Dual 12 MP (27mm, f/1.8, OIS 4-axis & 52mm, f/2.6), phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, 8 MP, 1080p
2. anni di garanzia
http://www.amazon.it/Xiaomi-Mi-Dual-64GB-Nero/dp/B074WPDTJF/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523958415&sr=8-1&keywords=Xiaomi%20Mi6
Paradoxically enough, it seems that by publishing thousands of similar (or worse) "translated" descriptions, they are polluting the same trough their MTs feed from...
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Michael Beijer 
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:28
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
| Dutch<>English not supported (yet)... | Apr 17, 2018 |
I was all logged in and ready to try it out, but soon realised that Dutch into English isn't yet supported, so haven't been able to test it yet.
I also remember that Patrick Porter (https://www.proz.com/translator/94253 ) who used to hang around here on Proz was hired by the Amazon MT team at some point, so I wonder whether he had something to do with it.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:28
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Is it secure? | Apr 17, 2018 |
Is this thing secure? You have to sign in to use it. What happens to the data?
| | | | LINHARES
United States
Local time: 16:28
English to Portuguese
| Amazon Translate Tests | Oct 5, 2018 |
I tested out the Amazon Translate in the pair language English-Portuguese. In fact, I translated around 10 English texts with different topics and areas (technical, informal and formal web texts), translating all of them from English into Portuguese. Then, I translated the same texts using Google Translate. They both kinda came out with good translations (for a machine). Sometimes, Amazon Translate was better and sometimes Google Translate. However, I am surprised that Amazon Translate equaled G... See more I tested out the Amazon Translate in the pair language English-Portuguese. In fact, I translated around 10 English texts with different topics and areas (technical, informal and formal web texts), translating all of them from English into Portuguese. Then, I translated the same texts using Google Translate. They both kinda came out with good translations (for a machine). Sometimes, Amazon Translate was better and sometimes Google Translate. However, I am surprised that Amazon Translate equaled Google Translate, since Google has been out for a decade or so now, and Amazon just came out! I am sure Amazon will grow better as it learns over time. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER | Upload your own terminology | Jul 6, 2021 |
I'm not sure since how long this has been available, but I just discovered that AT lets you upload your own terminology. Chances are that Amazon will harvest your glossaries, but nevertheless, this feature could be useful.
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Leighton Jacobs
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:28
Member (2019)
German to English
+ ...
| Should be better than other MT systems | Jul 6, 2021 |
I've been post-editing for Amazon since January 2018 (although not recently).
Back in 2018, the MT content wasn't great and needed quite a significant amount of editing. It's improved immensely since then, all down to the post-editors, in my opinion. I don't think the underlying system is really much better at all and instead now simply has enormous volumes of TM units to draw on that were either corrected by post-editors or retranslated by them. So, whereas, in the early days the ... See more I've been post-editing for Amazon since January 2018 (although not recently).
Back in 2018, the MT content wasn't great and needed quite a significant amount of editing. It's improved immensely since then, all down to the post-editors, in my opinion. I don't think the underlying system is really much better at all and instead now simply has enormous volumes of TM units to draw on that were either corrected by post-editors or retranslated by them. So, whereas, in the early days the system would translate a much higher percentage of the content, a lot more is now 'translated' through matches in TM databases.
So, to me at least, I think the system is doing a lot less 'learning' and a lot more 're-using' of existing translations. Indeed, the NMT system can now use all of the human-edited translations without anyone in the loop at all, which I believe is the ultimate aim (no surprise there though).
In my experience, the system struggles most with technical content and short sections that rely heavily on context (as mentioned). I've seen some shocking mistranslations in this regard (even some that completely inverted the meaning). I think its strength lies mostly in simple content relating to fashion and clothing items. Ultimately though, I would say the output is likely to be slightly better than Google Translate & Co. simply because of human input, although it would definitely be a gamble to rely on the system without any human involvement - if it didn't find any TM matches that were previously edited by post-editors for examples, the quality of translations provided purely by the NMT would be significantly worse.
Regarding custom terminology: I do remember that certain terms would appear in yellow highlighting for us post-editors, which meant it was a glossary entry from the client and should be used. Other terms were even prohibited, which again, I assume were also specified by the client (not sure how though). I wonder whether the system now (tries to) implement(s) the custom terms without human oversight... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for the detailed feedback. Very interesting.
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