ABSTRACT
This chapter is dedicated to the type of translation tool most widely used by people outside the language professions: automatic machine translation. Following a brief history of machine translation dating back to the 1940s, this chapter thoroughly examines more recent data-driven approaches to machine translation, including the artificial-intelligence-based neural machine translation. A key goal of this chapter is to assist readers with the development of their own machine translation literacy skills, such as learning to assess the risks of employing unedited machine translations in high-stakes versus low-stakes scenarios. The chapter ends with some discussion points, practical exercises, and suggestions for further reading.
