Universal Translator v.0.0.1

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This article appealed to my former self - the one that used to be an Arabic translator for the US military (I can barely remember that I was in the military at this point, let alone being a translator)

Pentagon to Create Super Translation Software

... the Pentagon is looking to for researchers to build a software set "with the goal of eliminating the need for linguists and analysts and automatically providing relevant, distilled, actionable information.

[The software will include]

  • A transcription engine that produces English transcripts [from foreign speech] with 95% accuracy

  • A translation engine producing English text [from foreign prose] with 95% accuracy

  • A distillation engine able to fill knowledge bases with key facts and to deliver useful information as proficiently as humans can.

    The source languages will be English, Chinese and Arabic plus surprise languages to be announced later.

    • "Surprise languages" - I like that. Like Norwegian. That'd be a surprise. Or Quebecois. Surprise! Or how about translating what that lady at the sandwich counter says.