Human vs. Machine Translation – Benefits and Drawbacks

With the advances in the field of computer and information technologies (CIT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), which revolutionized the machine translation process, has become part of our lives over the last years. There has been a shift from tasks based on human intelligence to such based on AI. Living in the era of the global reach of science and technology, it was impossible for the field of translation to be left unaltered. The review focuses on the quality of Machine Translation (MT) output in terms of the complexity and diversity of Bulgarian as the source language and English as the target language. MT quality is analyzed in terms of fidelity, adequacy, lexicon and cultural uniqueness. Furthermore, the purpose of this article is to outline the drawbacks of MT in the cultural and linguistic context of Bulgarian. Some concluding remarks will be made about the dimensions and boundaries of MT. This article, however, contributes to the description of translation as the canvas on which subtle nuances and tender strokes turn into a masterpiece. Literature review was adopted as the main research method. Based on the review of 47 articles, three books and a thesis, I conclude that translation is still a domain that is a privilege to humans. Machines can only accelerate the process of human translation but they cannot serve as a universal replacement. While machine translation that operates through a computer code cannot be combined with social and cultural background, high quality translation can be stimulated through the synergy between artificial and human intelligence.