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Google Translate Learns To Reduce Gender Bias (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the two-is-better-than-one dept.

Google is working to make Translate less gender-biased by giving both a feminine and masculine translation for a single word. "Previously, the service defaulted to the masculine options," reports CNET. "The new function is available when translating words from English into French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish and Spanish. It provides a similar function when translating into English." From the report: Google Translate learns from the hundreds of millions of already-translated examples available on the internet, creating an opportunity for the tool to incorporate the gender bias it encountered online, according to a Google blog post announcing the change. With the update, Google Translate will present translations for both genders. For example, if you translate "o bir doktor" from Turkish to English, you'll see "she is a doctor" and "he is a doctor" in the translation box. In November, Google also made Gmail's Smart Compose technology stop suggesting gender-based pronouns. Previously, it defaulted to masculine pronouns.

5 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. All the world's minor problems have been addressed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    So now Google can finally tackle the really big stuff!

  2. Re:Good! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1, Funny

    Only 'both'? Language is 'transphobic', words need 56+ genders!

    Plus one more for 'motion towards'.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. What happens... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you type in "Nothing's wrong" and do an English -> English translation?

  4. This is purely PR by lucasnate1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This problem already exists with languages that have two forms of 2nd person (dignified and personal). In these cases, google just outputs one case and allows you to click on it in order to get the other. Of course, this interface is less sexy for the brave couch activists of the internet, and therefore a new interface must be invented.

    I really think that in the future, most of our gender dramas would be remembered the same way that we remember church officials arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

    --
    Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
  5. Re:Trans late by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    We won the war so we don't need to read your link.