一叶知秋——《经济学人》文章欣赏阅读II

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以下是中公考研英语研究院为大家整理的“一叶知秋——《经济学人》文章欣赏阅读II”，以供广大考生参考，希望对你们有所帮助。
　　这次我们又从《经济学人》中选择了一篇文章，这篇文章是有关于当下比较火的深度学习的，这篇文章带给大家新的资讯，带来新技术，以及大家关心的考研词汇。
　　Now we’re talking
　　来来来，尽情说
　　Voice technology is making computers less daunting and more accessible.
　　语音技术使计算机不再那么令人生畏，而且更容易接近。
　　ANY sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point. Using it is just like casting a spell: say a few words into the air, and a nearby device can grant your wish.
　　英国科幻作家Arthur C. Clarke指出，任何足够先进的技术都与魔法无异，新兴的语音处理技术证明此观点。使用它就像施法：隔空说几句话，附近的设备就能满足你的愿望。
　　The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are proliferating in smartphones, too: Apple’s Siri handles over 2bn commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?
　　Amazon Echo(室内蓝牙语音扬声器)是一种语音驱动的柱形电脑，它放在桌子上，听到Alexa的名字便进行回答，可以播放音乐、收听广播、讲笑话、回答琐碎的问题、控制智能电器;圣诞节之前，它已经落户于大约4%的美国家庭。语音助手也在智能手机中不断涌现：苹果的Siri每周处理超过20亿次的指令，而美国android手机中，谷歌完成的搜索有20%是通过语音输入的。现在，口述邮件和信息已经足够可靠，为什么要打字呢?
　　This is a huge shift. Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touchscreens, were welcomed as more intuitive ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for the abstraction of a “user interface” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, powerful and ubiquitous than people can imagine today.
　　这是一个巨大的转变。尽管看起来简单，但通过提供自然的交互方式，语音具有转换处理的能力。窗口、图标和菜单，以及触摸屏，都被视为与计算机交互更直观的方式，而不是输入复杂的键盘命令。但是，能够与计算机对话，消除了“用户界面”的抽象需求。正如移动电话不过是没有电话线的座机，汽车不过是没有马拉的四轮车，因此没有屏幕和键盘的电脑有可能比人们想象的更有用、更强大、更普遍。

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Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is destined to account for a growing share of people’s interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate callcentres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further break-throughs—and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
　　语音不会完全取代其他形式的输入和输出。有时，通过打字而不是语音来与机器交谈(Amazon据说正在研制使用内置屏幕的Echo设备)会更加方便。但是，语音注定要在人们与周围技术的互动中占据越来越大的份额，洗衣机就可以告诉你，其生命周期中有多少时间是留给呼叫中心的虚拟助手中。然而，为了充分发挥其潜力，这项技术需要进一步突破，并解决在便利与隐私之间权衡的棘手问题。
　　Alexa, what is deep learning?
　　Alexa，深度学习为何物?
　　Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user’s voice. Computers’ new ability to recognise almost anyone’s speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial-intelligence technique in which a software system is trained using millions of examples, usually culled from the internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerised translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms (see Technology Quarterly).
　　计算机听写系统已经存在多年了，但并不可靠，需要经过长时间培训才能识别特定用户的声音。计算机不受训练就识别任何人讲话的新能力，是“深度学习”能力的最 新体现。“深度学习”是一种人工智能技术，在这种技术中，软件系统通过数百万个通常从互联网中挑选出来的实例进行训练。有了深度学习，机器如今的转录精 确度几乎与人类相同，机器翻译系统正在迅速发展，而文字-语音系统变得越来越灵活、自然。简而言之，计算机在处理各种形式的自然语言方面做得越来越好(参见技术季刊)。
　　Although deep learning means that machines can recognise speech more reliably and talk in a less stilted manner, they still don’t understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies large and small are working on this very problem, building “bots” that can hold more elaborate conversations about more complex tasks, from retrieving information to advising on mortgages to making travel arrangements. (Amazon is offering a $1m prize for a bot that can converse “coherently and engagingly” for 20 minutes.)
　　尽管深度学习意味着机器能够更可靠地识别语音，以不那么呆板的方式说话，但他们仍然不理解语言的含义。这是问题中最困难的一个方面，如果语音驱动计算真正要蓬勃发展，那就必须克服。计算机必须能够理解上下文，以保持对某事物的连贯对话，而不仅对简单的、一次性的语音指令作出反应，就像现在这样(“嗨，Siri，定时十分钟)。大学、大公司和小公司的研究人员正在研究这个问题，他们构建了“机器人”，可以对更复杂的任务进行更详尽的对话，从检索信息到提供抵押贷款建议，再到旅行安排。(亚马逊为能够在20分钟内“连贯、生动对话”的机器人提供了100万美元的奖励)。
　　驽马十驾，功在不舍，你的词汇量就是在不断的阅读中逐步积累起来的。
　　以上是中公考研英语研究院为大家准备整理的“一叶知秋——《经济学人》文章欣赏阅读II”的相关内容。了解更多相关资讯，敬请关注中公考研。另外，为了帮助考生更好地复习，中公考研为广大学子推出2018考研秋季集训营、一对一课程、保研课程系列备考专题，针对每一个科目要点进行深入的指导分析，还会根据每年的考研大纲进行针对性的分析哦~欢迎各位考生了 解咨询。同时，中公考研一直为大家推出考研直播课堂，足不出户就可以边听课边学习，为大家的考研梦想助力!
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