[mtklein]

I completely agree that technology in the last couple years has genuinely been fulfilling the promise established in my childhood sci-fi.

The other day, alone in a city I'd never been to before, I snapped a photo of a bistro's daily specials hand-written on a blackboard in Chinese, copied the text right out of the photo, translated it into English, learned how to pronounce the menu item I wanted, and ordered some dinner.

Two years ago this story would have been: notice the special board, realize I don't quite understand all the characters well enough to choose or order, and turn wistfully to the menu to hopefully find something familiar instead. Or skip the bistro and grab a pre-packaged sandwich at a convenience store.

[taurath]

> I snapped a photo of a bistro's daily specials hand-written on a blackboard in Chinese, copied the text right out of the photo, translated it into English, learned how to pronounce the menu item I wanted, and ordered some dinner.

> Two years ago

This functionality was available in 2014, on either an iPhone or android. I ordered specials in Taipei way before Covid. Here's the blog post celebrating it:

https://blog.google/products/translate/one-billion-installs/

This is all a post about AI, hype, and skepticism. In my childhood sci-fi, the idea of people working multiple jobs to still not be able to afford rent was written as shocking or seen as dystopian. All this incredible technology is a double edges sword, but doesn't solve the problems of the day, only the problems of business efficiency, which exacerbates the problems of the day.

[jameshart]

The part of that google translate announcement that covered translating handwritten Chinese must have gone missing

[n8cpdx]

It was available as early as 2012, probably earlier as IIRC Microsoft was copying:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/470008/bing_translator_app_g...

[ryoshoe]

>The other day, alone in a city I'd never been to before, I snapped a photo of a bistro's daily specials hand-written on a blackboard in Chinese, copied the text right out of the photo, translated it into English, learned how to pronounce the menu item I wanted, and ordered some dinner.

To be fair apps dedicated apps like Pleco have supported things like this for 6+ years, but the spread of modern language models has made it more accessible