Machine Translation and the impact of its free availability on the internet

The talk will briefly explain how MT works focussing on why translation is still difficult for a computer and therefore why translations are often imperfect. We will then look at the history of MT's availability as a free service on the internet, and discuss some of the consequences of that. In particular we will look at its use by language learners (particularly at high school level), and by members of the general public with little understanding of language and translation, and conclude with the need for better understanding of what MT is and isn't good for.