ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of machine translation

Machine translation is a computer software that can automatically translate a text from one language to another. It is like having a robot friend who can help you understand what someone is saying in a language you do not know. The idea of using machines to translate languages started in the early 1950s, when people had to manually translate texts from one language to another.

At first, machine translation was limited to translating only basic phrases and sentences, and the translations often had inaccurate meanings. This is because language is very complex, and machines had trouble understanding the meaning behind words and phrases, as well as context and cultural references that are often vital to understand.

Over time, machine translation has improved significantly with advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and now can translate sentences and even whole documents accurately. However, it still has its limitations, with the quality of the translation depending on the complexity of the text, the languages being translated, and the accuracy of the machine.

Despite these limitations, machine translation has become an essential tool for businesses, governments, and even individuals as it allows communication across languages and cultures where manual translation would take too much time and cost too much money.

So, in summary, machine translation is a way to use computers to automatically understand and translate languages accurately, and it has come a long way from its early beginnings, but still has room for improvement.