Where machine translation can be applied
Machine translators prove to be a good choice for specific domains where the goal is mutual understanding rather than stylistic perfection, such as:
- Technical content: Companies manufacturing electronic devices for global distribution rely on MT to translate the instruction manuals into multiple languages.
- Public administration: Government bodies and international organizations use MT for official documents, reports, and communication around the world.
- Historical research: Historians that study ancient civilizations rely on MT to decipher cuneiform texts written in languages such as Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian. Systems capable of translating cuneiform text are specially prepared for such purposes, visit Oxford Academic to learn more. MT helps in the analysis of historical documents and provides valuable insights into ancient cultures.
- User-generated content: Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter use MT to translate comments and posts to facilitate multicultural understanding among users.
- E-commerce: Online retailers that want to expand their market reach can machine translate descriptions, listings and customer reviews into multiple languages to make the products more accessible to a multilingual customer base.
- Military: Military personnel uses MT to communicate with civilians.
- Medicine: Hospitals need MT to translate medical forms, instructions and to communicate with patients who speak different languages.
- Customer support: Customer support teams rely on MT to quickly translate chat, e-mail messages and customer inquiries to provide support in many languages.