Google Translate update shows the true power of machine learning

The mechanics behind machine learning and artificial intelligence can tax many a non-techy brain at the best of times. But the travel industry should be aware of how prevalent it will become in various processes (especially in customer service) and how it can also solve many problems. Here is a good example, and one which is at the heart of one of the fundamental aspects of the travel experience: language. In late-2016, Google quietly pushed out what some are considering to be one of the most "astonishing" updates in the field of machine learning. The ten-year-old Google Translate platform, which apparently deciphers 140 billion words every day across 103 languages for thousands of websites and search terms, switched from its previous system to something called Neural Machine Translation (Google NMT).