The IAMT Certification initiative and defining translation system categories

Since the middle of the 1990s there has been a rapid increase in the number and variety of translation systems available, in the form of stand-alone software for ‘automatic ’ translation, computer-aided translation systems for large corporations, translator workbenches, translation memory systems, on-line systems provided on the Internet (some of them free), and there will no doubt be more in the future. For the general public, computer software for translation is a quite new product; they are unaware of the advantages, limitations and methods of using such systems. They are furthermore familiar with rapid improvements of computer technology and software, and will therefore be expecting similar rapid improvements in the quality of translation software. One of the tasks of the MT community must therefore be to convey some idea of the immense complexities involved in dealing with natural language (and in particular the kind of colloquial language used over the Internet), and to explain why automatic translation has progressed so slowly despite over forty years of intensive research. For some time the IAMT has been concerned that some guidance should be provided for potential purchasers of systems, to explain, for example, the difference