Google has adopted a new paradigm for translations with which it intends to reduce the gender bias that occurs between two languages when one of them distinguishes between masculine and feminine in terms that the other is gender neutral.
The Google translator, since 2018, offers in its translations the two gender options regarding a term in another gender-neutral language, such as’ doctor ‘in English, which shows’ doctor / doctor in Spanish.
This approach employs a three-step process, by which it detects gender-neutral requests, generates gender-specific translations, and checks their accuracy. It was available for English-Turkish translations, and from this Wednesday also for English-Spanish.
Along with this novelty, the company has announced a new paradigm to address gender bias with the “rewriting and post-editing of the initial translation”, as indicated in a statement. It has also been introduced for Finnish, Hungarian and Persian translations with English.
Google has also designed a new assessment method, called bias reduction, that measures the relative reduction in bias between the new translation system and the existing system.
