How Google Translate Turns 134 Languages Into Math | WSJ Tech Behind

[@wsj]

How tech workers are retooling for the AI boom: on.wsj.com/3VstMRb

[@TheChurches-r3p]

8l

[@Google]

Hope everyone enjoyed the explainer

[@narendrapanse7844]

Loved it. Thank you Google. You are THE BEST!

[@ordinarryalien]

Don't be evil.

[@phrinlas]

Why not Tibetan?

[@absawa]

@@phrinlas They're working on it. If you know Tibetan you can go and contribute as well.

[@joshuathomas512]

@@narendrapanse7844 meat rider

[@Uchenna-b1t]

Math, hate it or love it, it will always be a universal language

[@_dushanenko]

:(

[@pineapplerindm]

Love it

[@JesusPlsSaveMe]

TO EVERYONE IN THIS CHAT: *THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD IS DRAWING NIGH.* REPENT TODAY AND GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS TO ESCAPE ETERNAL DAMNATION...

[@InternetRoot]

Music is the universal human language.

[@value-0626]

​@@JesusPlsSaveMeIt's always drawing near but never arrives.

[@sdsd4139]

Craziest part of this is how Google Translate is available to everyone for free

[@sarkaranish]

It's free for you and me, but google charges businesses and websites for the use of translation tools. it's a neat way of keeping the internet free and accessible to regular people.

[@long2181998]

@@sarkaranish Wait until the constant demand for growth force Google to start extracting $ from regular people. Just a matter of time in an insatiable growth environment induced by capitalism.

[@Dafty2k]

@@sarkaranishand the correct way to

[@sarkaranish]

@@Dafty2k Same thing with google maps too.

[@SirusStarTV]

And it is very bad sometimes

[@alexnaumov4854]

These developers are too smart. I couldn’t even understand what they explained.

[@JesusPlsSaveMe]

TO EVERYONE IN THIS CHAT: *THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD IS DRAWING NIGH.* REPENT TODAY AND GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS TO ESCAPE ETERNAL DAMNATION...

[@joshwilliams7692]

That's because this is a very poor explanation of the process narrated by someone who doesn't understand what the guy is saying.

[@lbgstzockt8493]

@@JesusPlsSaveMe translation: you are insane

[@EhCloserLook]

If you take linear algebra you will understand this better. (I have a math degree.)

[@legendarygang4807]

@@EhCloserLookI’m probably going to take multivar calculus for my ML class in high school. Only multivar calc is required for the ML class but a lot of people take linear algebra with it because they kind of go hand in hand. Do you think linear algebra is essential to understanding this process? I want to know if I should take it or not

[@spacewalker9375]

I never considered matrices can be used to translate language. That’s fascinating.

[@DSCKottawa]

That's how neural networks work, matrices of matrices being calculated

[@rigobertoitachijohnson]

i haven't watched the video yet, but matrices are important because of how computer memory works...

[@pineapplerindm]

matrices are really useful - quantum computers would be awesome at this

[@lbgstzockt8493]

Linear algebra pops up everywhere if you look hard enough. And if it doesn't appear in the formal definition of some algorithm it probably hides in the numerical approximations we use to actually calculate the cool things we want.

[@londomolari5715]

@@pineapplerindm Why? all they do is produce list of randome numbers

[@hiddendrifts]

having visuals to enhance the basic explanations makes connecting the dots between concepts so much easier. i knew vectors and matrices were involved in machine learning... somehow, but the way this video presented the topic helped me make the connection of what exact role they have

[@entropymaster2012]

Somehow this shows the deep relationship between language and mathematics. And it doesn't matter the language! Maybe our brains too are performing mathematical computations when they generate and understand language expressions... Artificial intelligence is exposing in data structures and silicon how our mind works...

[@EduardoEscarez]

That's the trick of AI models, reducing the analog processes of our brain to a multiplication matrix a digital chip can handle, so we can have a glance to the structures we develop in language. And is not only in humans, there is research trying to the same with other animals like whales, using AI to determine their speech structures and trying to find some correlation with human speech. Maybe, just maybe, one day we could have an universal translator, a system that with enough data can translate the structures from and to any language.

[@kylehudsons]

So this was what my previous job of text transcribing for Google was for.

[@JesusPlsSaveMe]

TO EVERYONE IN THIS CHAT: *THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD IS DRAWING NIGH.* REPENT TODAY AND GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS TO ESCAPE ETERNAL DAMNATION...

[@possiblyrei]

@@JesusPlsSaveMe no.

[@EcomCarl]

The evolution of Google Translate into a neural network-driven tool is a remarkable achievement in technology! Leveraging transformers and OCR not only improves language processing capabilities but also bridges communication gaps globally, enhancing cross-cultural interactions and business operations.

[@mrfrost6337]

this is not linkedin, u know that rn

[@JesusPlsSaveMe]

TO EVERYONE IN THIS CHAT: *THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD IS DRAWING NIGH.* REPENT TODAY AND GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS TO ESCAPE ETERNAL DAMNATION...

[@gracelandtoo6240]

Thanks, Magic.

[@aspenin]

thanks chatGPT

[@yewo.m]

Sounds pretty AI-generated

[@Alorio-Gori]

Massive respect and shout out to all the Developers who made this possible ❤

[@kurdx7778]

It is one of the best digital products ever created. They have also recently added 110 more languages, bringing the total number of languages and dialects supported to 243.

[@oakspines7171]

Each word we use regardless of the languages has a meaning, and we naturally use comparision, addition, subtraction, negation, etc to use and express context relationship which are actually math.

[@tungbuu]

About 10 years ago when I first used Google Translate in highschool, it churned out an absolute mess of word-by-word translation which took me more time to rephrase than actually translating the materials myself. So I never used Google Translate again. Until about just a few years ago I started using again, and was amazed at how accurate and well-phrases the translation had become. Now finally someone explains how it happened. Fascinating!

[@1.4142]

So even if two languages are more closely related to each other than to english, it still goes through english? It's also surprising how good GPT is at translation considering it wasn't made for it.

[@DeML22G]

The best video I saw this month

[@therankingworld7627]

Amazing how far technology has come

[@vj9608]

completely changed the world 🥰

[@LFTRnow]

Mathematics is the language of nature.

[@Yodakaycool]

Dang that is fascinating!

[@carultch]

What Google translate could use, is a way to specify the part-of-speech of the word you intend to translate. Many times, a word could be both a noun and a verb in English. It may not change form in English, but you'd like it to change to the desired form in the destination language.

[@jan_Masewin]

Put the word into a sentence where context makes clear which meaning you want

[@carultch]

@@jan_Masewin I do. It still gets it wrong occasionally.

[@harmanpreetsingh7848]

They even preserve the underlying font of the input language. Just WOW!

[@urbanstrencan]

Interesting tech behind the best app that Google ever made 😊😊

[@huckelbarryflynn673]

Did anyone notice how the matrix multiplication at 2:57 resulted in a matrix with the wrong dimensions? (3X4 * 4X3 = 3X3 but the video shows 4X4)

[@Abdullah_Talha]

yeah, at first i thought they were right so i made me think the matrices were 4x3 and 3x4 to justify that but now on second thought, yeah, they are wrong.

[@yongjinnkim9207]

I majored in business administration and learned linear algebra in my freshman semester. I hated it at that time, but I am pretty happy now since I have got some concept of thinking mathematically.

[@Eli-cq8jq]

It's helpful. My children used it to communicate with some of our family members.

[@endgamefond]

I WANNA SAY THANK YOU TO THE GRAPICH DESIGNERS FOR THIS VIDEO. YOU ARE INSANELY TALENTED. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE CONTENT TO MAKE THE DESIGNS. YOU GUYS NEED TO GET A RAISED!

[@sasstewart1222]

Say what you will about Google... its things like Translate which makes me LOVE GOOGLE. Thank you google.

[@Netryon]

You won't be let to have that vacation to test that technology. Translating from and to English and only then to your language of choice is indeed more accurate. 0:23 it mostly blocks the light source for scanning. You may have some problem in your past contracts and having it digitized may help you find it. 3:33 drawing is best simple tool for VSCoding and data structures for partying players.

[@phrinlas]

"Our goal is to support all of them"... except Tibetan. Spoken by 7 million people worldwide, one of the most widely written premodern languages used throughout the Himalayas, Mongolia, and the Qing Dynasty, Google has repeatedly refused to provide Google Translate for Tibetan for fear of upsetting the PRC.

[@patrickstick8249]

But every indian, pakistani, african, muslim supports russia and china

[@guyoverthere5761]

Freakin brilliant

[@mihailstolz]

Cool how they did it Numberphile-style. Shows the Brady already has the best format.

[@dieuanh6668]

Very thorough explanation

[@MrVTeta]

If it's text based, for quite a few languages, DeepL is better. Google translate is much better for live or picture translating though.

[@pineapplerindm]

would be interesting to know what separates the two

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

Not always. In my experience sometimes deepl was better and sometimes google. So on average these are simmilar I would say.

[@jessetorres8738]

I don't remember where I heard this, but math is the only language ever human being speaks since no matter where you live 1+1=2.

[@vrclckd-zz3pv]

No one tell this guy about Roman numerals

[@widrolo]

@@vrclckd-zz3pv I + I = II is basically the same, its the expression thats universal

[@adamsierakowski3289]

Possibly doesn't apply to Pirahã tribespeople

[@maxcakery]

@@widrolo no, that which is expressed is universal. For the computer, 1+1=10.

[@SanketMehrotra]

Google translates focus on number of languages and OCR in picture has resulted in massive suffering of the quality of its translation. I regularly try English to Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi and other very mainstream languages with great translation back a few years ago but nowadays i get literal translations 100% of the time which is pretty inaccurate in the tsrget language. I cannot imagine how useless this app is to people who ar typing in. OCR translation is up but voice recognition and text inout translation needs a savior.

[@rhranjithkumar34]

They have been at it since two decades

[@jimysk8er]

I like that we are moving on from asking experts for their input to asking experts how they think. The general way I could explain to someone how I translate between my two fluent languages is basically the same as stated in the video, I know the context or the intent of the phrase therefore I know the equivalent in both languages. I don't have to translate in my head when using either languages (french and english) I just know.

[@muhammed5667]

I aspire to make a meaningful contribution to the knowledge base of machine learning! Thank you to Google for developing such advanced technology and optimising it for everyday mobile hardware and thank you to WSJ for pursuing quality media for increasing accessibility to the work of corporations like Google!

[@AltaroRitmerZaxmer]

Useful video. But as an andriod user, I prefer to use Immersive Translate to help me translate what I need. This plug-in can also translate 100+ languages.

[@EhCloserLook]

Google Translate is so amazing and so fast! I use it often!

[@L.SLibby]

0:47 0:47

[@ДимаДмитриев-р9п]

2:55 you've incorrectly multiplied matrices though...

[@emc3000]

Wonderful video.

[@AKU666]

Time when Space Weather Prediction Center was translated to russian language like "satellite conspiracy of environment" will be remembered.

[@CrimsonAlchemist]

Didn't know how complicated this is

[@seanhsieh4149]

I finally found the usage of linear algebra in computer science

[@davyroger3773]

Dude all neural networks do is linear combos!

[@seanhsieh4149]

@@davyroger3773 professor only teach me how to solve equation without elaborating the application of linear algebra. 😶

[@vectoralphaSec]

ALL of computer graphics and AI/ Machine Learning is Linear Algebra

[@caseclosed9342]

Crazy how your phone can do so much. When I was in Turkey I used it to translate everything from signs to medicine bottles..

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

Do ocr in google translate works offline? Also, If I am not mistaken offline translations in google translate are much lower quality, than the ones showed to you when you have intenet connection

[@londomolari5715]

They hype in this video is the claim that the machine translate and understand the meaning of the sentence. They are really good at mapping morphemes from one language into those of another.

[@somaghosh2960]

Good topic ,👍

[@Wmann]

This was so simplified, though. At least I got the idea.

[@eriksonyw]

Told u'all to take Vector Geometry class!! 😆

[@sean7891233]

Ironic how google was so early to use transformers but fell behind in the AI race

[@Yodakaycool]

Reminds me of the chinese writing system but instead of artistic symbols, it's math. But man, that is so much programming. I wish I learned sooner instead of rotoscoping lol.

[@mosestekper7659]

This is some high level crazy stuff. Wow

[@ColCurtis]

3:40 looks like you haven't held a sharpie before.

[@davyroger3773]

Good ole Linear algebra!

[@ashokit1225]

Superb..

[@pranaypaul6361]

Fascinating

[@cappybenton]

Wunderbar

[@xilefx]

quite interesting to see that math seems to be the universal language to consolidate them all

[@edwardrogerson9263]

Yep, it's clear as mud! And judging by the hilarious mistranslations I keep getting on Google and KZbin, it also works spectacularly well 🙄

[@Tom-fl9bb]

Unlikely to English & other languages, Korean sentence composes to 'subject + object + verb'. However 'Google translate' always translates correct way!!

[@truthboom]

Math is universal logic confirm

[@RaymondHng]

To this day, Google Translate does not feature Cantonese which is a spoken language.

[@Zuranthus]

now i know why it's garbage, words aren't numbers people

[@Genedide]

Hey Google! “Translate” Chrone extension is failing to translate on major pages like Reddit and Facebook. Can you fix that? Also, when are we gonna get AI dub?

[@randatatang9222]

Microsoft copilot told me this already. I wanted to know if it could translate better than Google translate. It basically said they both employed the same translation method

[@MrVTeta]

For quite a few languages, DeepL is better.

[@djp1234]

I hope they use this to decode whale languate.

[@kenmore01]

I used it extensively while repairing French Swiss instruments. New parts would come with French instructions. It wasnt perfect, but I got by. I mean they were only measuring construction materials, what harm could it do if not translated well?

[@lokesh303101]

Yes!

[@mon699]

So smart I literally cannot

[@maemilev]

The new technology is exceedingly slow and unresponsive.

[@edwardrogerson9263]

It also butchers many translations utterly beyond recognition, even to native speakers 🙄

[@chris5145]

Since a few months google translate is terrible in line synchronisations, type in 4 or 5 rows of similar words in English to Japanese, Hindi, German and when translating not quite often you get 3 or 4 lines! This must have happened since all the new languages were released and more AI was incorporated. Its bad

[@Dino_Zunic]

6:08 r/dontdeadopeninside

[@TrevorWofford]

My head is spinning

[@pareshpaul001]

No hexadecimals bits...???

[@sunalwaysshinesonTVs]

Ah, that explains it. Siure Google Translate wors okay for common languages (english, french, spanish, german) but everything else produces poetic gibberish.

[@excancerpoik]

Kinda annoying how it goes via english so each time i want to translate something using plural you it just changes to singular and a bunch of other words are wrong and i have to manually change it

[@ROMROMBUDDIES]

the ui sounds ued here are from genshin impact?

[@paulringopedrera7848]

The “You matter, don’t give up.” part and the recognition is amoiizziing!! Chef’s kiss! 🫶🕊️

[@alewifey555]

Okay but why does your algorithm still always route through English, regardless of the source and target languages? There should at least be regional hub languages-e.g. Romance to Romance language translations should route through French instead, to prevent the massive losses of information going to and from English (e.g. the sex/gender of 3rd person constructions is lost going to English, so that the system has to guess he's and she's at random going back to the second Romance language). And more importantly, why don't your fancy word-vectors bother to differentiate between spell-alike words? E.g., Google translate does not differentiate in any way between the noun "lead" (the chemical element Pb) and the verb "lead" (guide or direct)-which frankly is absurd. I am happy to provide examples to prove that these problems exist if necessary. That the second issue (conflating spell-alike words) is still an issue in 2024 is just gobsmacking TBH. The Defense Language Institute machine translation unit at Fort Ord had already worked out how to address that problem by the mid-1960s.

[@AceChina]

It's still really bad for translating Asian languages to English.

[@davisoaresalves5179]

And yet Chat gpt does a better job than google translate.

[@streetpunkstar]

Too bad it sucks at Japanese.

[@TherealElijhawatkins]

9:03

[@auro1986]

how? they have recorded dictionary of all languages and scans optical character reader from camera

[@11305205219]

*0:42** 好旺角*

[@TropicalEnterpriseLLC]

Translator here. ChatGPT is leagues bettet at translating meaning and intent.

[@huckleberryfinn6578]

Or Deepl.

[@NathanielHendry1]

Yes, but it can't cover all the 134 languages that Google can

[@TropicalEnterpriseLLC]

@@NathanielHendry1 Google is known for hugely chopping up the more obscure lesser known languages.

[@tormaid42]

Also a translator: they both suck. LLMs make funnier mistakes though, I’ll give them that.

[@notyouraveragecomment1328]

Is sounds berrada Moroccan?

[@Bensonjerry001]

*Amazing video, you work for 40yrs to have $1M in your retirement, meanwhile some people are putting just $10K into trading from just few months ago and now they are multimillionaires*

[@diegomoralessepulved]

Chilean Spanish.. Good luck

[@BernhardVoogenberger-tl5ox]

And now with LLMs decoder only translation is becomming a thing!

[@Shadow_Li]

That crazy

[@vungocmanhcuong4511]

This really discourages me from being a programmer (I'm bad at math)

[@rigobertoitachijohnson]

normal programming jobs doesn't have alot to do with math, assuming you mean computation or arithmetics... on some jobs in machine learning and ai programming is just a bonus, some of them do pure mathematics stuff for cutting edge technology

[@vrclckd-zz3pv]

Linear Algebra (what was discussed in the video) is easier to understand than most highschool math topics if you're able to visualize what it's doing. The KZbin channel 3 Blue 1 Brown has a great series called "The Essence of Linear Algebra" that gives a lot of intuition for how it works. Like the other guy said most programming jobs do not require a good understanding of maths, but I would add that if you want to be an above average programmer then a good understanding of maths is more important than a good understanding of the programming language that you're using. You can always go into web development. Web developers are some of the most brain dead people I know. Anyone can do that.

[@davyroger3773]

That’s a tough rap you’re giving the web devs ! Lol but I’d also recommend Gilbert Strangs lectures on LA. Get rid of the false notion that you’re bad at math, if you can learn a language you can learn math, it’s just another language

[@ivanuski15]

Not saying Google Translate is bad but I've spent a significant time using it and realized it has a difficult time understanding colloquialism and nuances in certain languages 😢

[@Imraphael_]

It was worse so it can only get better. Use deepL instead it is the best 👍

[@tonipwneroni9846]

@6:09: You don't matter. Give up.

[@aymandonia9710]

Google translate is bad chatgpt much better

[@athul_c1375]

Wait it's all transformers ?

[@Daniel_VolumeDown]

Yep, it is all technology from aliens

[@AndreaDoesYoga]

Wow, math and language working together, mind-blowing! 🤯

[@davyroger3773]

Math and language have always worked together by way of formal proofs!

[@crystalcandles752]

Who decides how the words are related? Maybe people who don't understand the diverse people of the world