Professional jealousy

2005-11-19

Professional jealousy

New interpretation systems for soldiers stationed in Iraq.

"Will it replace the need for an interpreter when you're having some sort of high-level conversation? Absolutely not," said Kristin Precoda, speech technology research lab director at SRI International and one of the developers of the program that got underway in May. "But it is absolutely to the point where it could be useful in some carefully chosen situations."

Hey, that's great. Now all we need to do is ensure that soldiers stationed in a war zone only ever enter carefully chosen situations. While we're at it, let's issue them all a unicorn to ride too.

Popularity factor: 4

Anonymous:

Unicorns? Wouldn't that mean the soldiers would all have to be virgins?

Matt:

No matter! We are, after all, talking about carefully chosen situations.

IbaDaiRon:

Nice gaffe with the lead-in invocation of Babel-Fish, eh?

Jesus and Mahomet having tea in the desert with Mussolini! I sincerely hope the occupation doesn't last long enough for them to perfect this.

That'd make the Crusades seem like an afternoon lark!

If it's anything like Babelfish, there are going to be big problems. Here's an example:"Put down your weapons now or we will kill you."Translated into Japanese as:あなたの武器を今下に置けば私達は殺すTranslated back into English as:"If your weapon is put under now, we kill."

Um, what do you want me to do again?

2005-11-19