Over the last couple of days the latest Google Translate errors, this time relating to two Catalan public figures, have been news in many mainstream media: ABC, La Vanguardia, Huffington Post, El Periódico, Antena 3, etc. Actually, it’s not surprising that the news was everywhere, since it was wired by news agencies such as Europa Press.
The error was still online today and I have recorded it so I can still see it when it has gone from Google Translate.
How does this kind of thing happen? Google Translate is essentially “crowd-sourced”, selecting equivalences from published translations. But the system also allows users to suggest better translations for segments and these are fed into the system. If enough users suggest the same “better” alternative translation, Google will eventually flip to the new proposal. That seems to be what’s happened here.
It’s a great publicity stunt and I don’t know who is behind it. In the grand scheme of things, however, it is just a blip, and it will soon be washed away.
