How a Microsoft Exec Talked About Prostitutes Without Even Knowing It

Back in November 2014, Microsoft took the wraps off Skype Translate, one of the most innovative technologies released by the company in the last decade (after HoloLens, of course).

Skype Translate basically allows us to talk to someone from another country in our own language and have the message automatically translated to theirs, thus making communications extremely simple. You speak in one language and your recipient gets it in another.

And to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology, Microsoft’s executives often turn to live demos during press conferences to show everyone how easy it is to talk to someone speaking another language.

But Microsoft Research head Peter Lee revealed at the Structure Data event in San Francisco that while artificial intelligence is growing continuously, automatic translation features are still in their early days and could sometime fail in the most humorous ways. Lee recalled a live presentation he did in front of English and Mandarin speaking attendees, using Skype Translate to have his words automatically translated to the latter.

“I was living in a snowy town”

While telling a story about childhood in a “snowy town” in upper Michigan, Lee noticed that a few Chinese speakers were actually laughing when listening to the speech via Skype Translate.

It was only after the end of the conference when he finally found out the reason for the giggling: it appears that “snow town” was translated by Skype to the Chinese equivalent of “Snow White’s Town,” which is the “town where a prostitute lives.” Without even knowing it, Lee was living in a town with prostitutes and it was all because of automated translation.

Certainly, nobody can deny the potential of Skype Translate and these advanced features, especially because they can truly remove the boundaries of language communications, but it’s very clear that improvements are needed, and this live blunder is living proof.

At this point, Skype Translate supports just a handful of languages, but Microsoft is already working for increased support and better features that would even recognize the standard interjections that we make while talking.