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Article published In:
Fair MT: Towards ethical, sustainable Machine Translation
Edited by Joss Moorkens, Dorothy Kenny and Félix do Carmo
[Translation Spaces 9:1] 2020
► pp. 58–77

Risks in neural machine translation

| Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
| Die RisikoScouts GbR

The new paradigm of neural machine translation is leading to profound changes in the translation industry. Surprisingly good results have led to high expectations; however, there are substantial risks that have not yet been sufficiently taken into account. Risks exist on three levels: first, what kind of damage can clients and end users incur in safety-critical domains if the NMT result contains errors; second, who is liable for damage caused by the use of NMT; third, what cyber risks can the use of NMT entail, especially when free online engines are used. When establishing sustainable measures to reduce such risks, we also need to consider general principles of human behaviour if we want to make sure that all agents comply with provisions and requirements.

Keywords: neural machine translation, translation risks, risk management, sustainability, cognitive biases
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Dimensions of NMT risks
    • 2.1Translation errors
    • 2.2Accountability – Liability – Responsibility
    • 2.3NMT cyber risks
  • 3.Sustainable workflows for NMT use
    • 3.1Non-technical measures (legislative and normative requirements)
    • 3.2Technical measures
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00021.can
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