Progress in Machine Translation

1999 - 2024

In 1999 I tried out some existing translation software found on the web. I input a 450-word passage from my mother's family history and translated it into French, then took the resulting text and translated that back into English. I then did the same with German and Spanish.

This year (2024) I came across the document and decided to repeat the process, using the latest version of Google Translate.

The original English text
Via French, 1999 Via German, 1999 Via Spanish, 1999
Via French, 2024 Via German, 2024 Via Spanish, 2024

The results show the vast progress made in machine translation over the last twenty-five years. The 1999 versions, if written by a schoolchild, would have been returned covered in red ink and a failing grade. The 2024 versions would attract no more than occasional use of an editor's blue pencil.

John Higgins, Chiang Mai, 2024