Skype Translate Reportedly Has a Swearing Problem In Chinese

An anonymous reader writes: Skype Translate was supposed to be Microsoft's attempt at the "Star Trek" universal translator, offering real-time voice and text translation. It launched with one of the most challenging of languages, Chinese. And apparently, thanks to the Great Firewall, it has its problems. An American expat using it in China reports: "A glitch in the beta software misinterpreted the words I spoke. 'It's nice to talk to you' was translated as 'It's f*cking nice to f*ck you,' and other synthesized profanity, like the icebox robot in 1970's sci-fi flick Logan's Run, but with Tourette Syndrome. It was quite funny to me - I couldn't help but laugh during repeated takes, to Yan's exasperation - but the tech team were none too happy about it as they worked late into the night."

Comments

Re:Its a neat bit of tech

[dunkelfalke]

*facepalm* the stupid is strong in this one.

Hindi and Mandarin aren't even in the same language family. They are as different as two languages can ever be.

There are more than enough Russian speakers in the west. I, for one, speak Russian as a second language. Same goes for Spanish and Arabic, by the way, so you are definitely talking out of your arse. Your provincialism is really showing, except that even in your own country 13% of the population speaks Spanish.

And this "exposing them to modern western culture" is laughable.