[growtofill]

> I have seen the rise of desktop tools, then server-based solutions, and lastly, of course, cloud-based tools. While each generation is better than the previous, the increments are decreasing.

Could you share what tools you are currently using?

[luxpir]

I think OP is referring to the widely used CAT (computer-aided translation) tools that save every sentence you translate into a translation memory (XML file, known as TMX, usually) to be auto-inserted when those sentences (segments) re-occur. It can be a huge timesaver. Sometimes identical segments need different translations, so they still need checking.

Most of these CAT tools integrate machine translation at some level, either through their own engines or APIs. This is traditionally to save the translator time on the simple segments (numbers and their formatting, lists of countries, place names etc.) but can also be good for avoiding multiple dictionary lookups in unfamiliar fields. Obviously professional translators should avoid working in fields they are unfamiliar with, but there are always new terms and technologies to contend with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_translation

As for the incremental improvements decreasing, that's a tricky statement to make with AI/MT creeping ever more into the software translators use daily. Might be more representative of OP not exploring all new features in the software they use.

[not_a_terrorist]

Excellent answer, except your last paragraph!

I have used pretty much any and all cutting edge tools on the market. If anything in some instances, it creates even more proofreading/reviewing work.

That being said, as I explained to another commenter above, I foresee several useful use-cases for MT (and there are already are some!). I see them as mostly a separate field from human translation work, in parallel, with little overlap.

[ivansavz]

Thx for the pointer to TMX. I need to do some computer-aided translation, and was about to roll my own file format for parallel-strings, but always better to choose something existing. Seems there is quite a bit of tools that support it too...