Author(s)

Lei Zhao ¹, Jiajia Cao ¹, Maojuan Lin ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Faculty of Foreign Languages, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huai'an, China

Corresponding Author

Lei Zhao

ABSTRACT

Currently, artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted foreign language translation has become a reality. However, human participation is still indispensable in distinguishing the advantages, disadvantages and reliability of various software. In this study, through the ranking method of manual evaluation, Chinese-to-English test translations were carried out on a total of four translation software of two types, namely Type A and Type B, from six aspects including words or phrases, proverbs, idioms, ambiguous sentences, political manuscripts and ancient Chinese poems. Based on the translation results, 10 teachers and 68 translation major students were selected to conduct online manual ranking. The ranking results show that the Type B artificial intelligence translation software is superior to the Type A online dictionary translation in the translation of words or phrases, proverbs and ambiguous sentences; however, it is not superior to the latter in the translation of idioms, political manuscripts and ancient Chinese poems, and none of them can accurately translate their Chinese connotations.

KEYWORDS

Machine translation, Artificial intelligence, Manual evaluation

CITE THIS PAPER

Lei Zhao, Jiajia Cao, Maojuan Lin, Examining the Reliability of Machine Translation in the AI Era: An Empirical Comparative Study of Four Translation Software. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 80-88. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070812.

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