
Google's text-to-speech engine randomly inserts phrase "he now praises the ipad" - moeffju
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=38538
======
epaga
"Larry Page used to use an Android. But that is now at an end with" works just
great. :)

[http://translate.google.com.mx/?hl=en#auto/en/Larry%20Page%2...](http://translate.google.com.mx/?hl=en#auto/en/Larry%20Page%20used%20to%20use%20an%20Android.%20But%20that%20is%20now%20at%20an%20end%20with)

~~~
gulbrandr
On translate.google.com [1] it works fine.

[1]
[http://translate.google.com/?hl=en#auto/en/Larry%20Page%20us...](http://translate.google.com/?hl=en#auto/en/Larry%20Page%20used%20to%20use%20an%20Android.%20But%20that%20is%20now%20at%20an%20end%20with)

~~~
kelnos
Still broken on regular translate.google.com for me, using your link...

~~~
ema
It's only broken for the female voice, with the male voice it works fine. But
i have no idea how google choses which voice to use.

------
mmastrac
Interesting that you can reproduce the bug by asking it to speak "filled
with":

<http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/filled%20with>

Or something like this (closer to the original bug):

<http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/patterned%20with>

~~~
EvanAnderson
Your first link got me "Filled with so much drama he now praises the iPad".
Tee-hee...

Edit: Youtube version: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyCGrWMk8Ws>

~~~
jlgreco
Along similar lines:
[http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/hit%20his%20head%20so%20h...](http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/hit%20his%20head%20so%20hard%20with)
;)

~~~
EGreg
[http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/After%20Larry%20Page%20un...](http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/After%20Larry%20Page%20unfortunately%20hit%20his%20head%2C%20he%20renounced%20android%20so%20hard%20with)

~~~
EvanAnderson
I just couldn't resist... >sigh<

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbHzcWMMpec>

------
sshumaker
Looks like the 'filled with so much drama' quote is from here:

[http://www.macnn.com/articles/11/12/01/surprised.that.reader...](http://www.macnn.com/articles/11/12/01/surprised.that.readers.willingly.share.data/)

Strange, it appears to be text from a random news article. Some kind of bad
training data? Or memory corruption?

~~~
TillE
Some kind of human error during training seems likely - the intonation isn't
neutral, it fits the context. Maybe they were trying to fix the pronunciation
for that one phrase, but applied it incorrectly.

------
Shank
Does Google still allow translation suggestions & help? Sounds like a cleverly
executed prank that resulted in the database getting bad information added.

I'd cite a page number but I don't have the novel on me. I seem to recall I'm
Feeling Lucky mentioning that in Google's infancy, the user translation
project left curse words on an alternate language version of Google's homepage
for a short time, which led to the abandonment of user translated material for
important Google properties.

Edit: Mystery solved on the Reddit comments, it comes from
[http://fr.zicos.com/mac/i26331784-Hearst-magazine-CEO-
offers...](http://fr.zicos.com/mac/i26331784-Hearst-magazine-CEO-offers-
testimonial-on-iPad-publishing.html). More info seems to reveal that "so much
drama he now praises the iPad" will be spoken if "filled with" is used on
Translate.

~~~
justincormack
Facebook I think not Google
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/29/facebook_translation...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/29/facebook_translation_turkey_prank/)

------
tarice
I just tested this on my Nexus 4 and it reproduced. I guess I now praise the
iPad.

~~~
eliben
Allow me to express my envy for your having a Nexus 4, the unattainable
device...

~~~
markdown
Ordered November 27th, still waiting :(

~~~
nailer
You should try an iPad. I hear they're quite good.

------
dmethvin
Reminds me of that bug back in 2007 when Google translate would take "sarkozy
is chirac" and translate it into "Bush is classless" or other completely
different text.

[http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/10/23/google-translates-
stra...](http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/10/23/google-translates-strange-
results/)

~~~
rmc
This is probably just an artifact of how Google Translate works. It uses
statistics to see corresponding terms and presumes that that's how it's
translated. Sarkozy used to be president of France, Bush of USA. What was
probably happening was that the phrase "President Bush" was being matched up
against "président Sarkozy". So it figures out "President" in French is
"président" (correct) and "Bush" in French is "Sarkozy" (incorrect).

Sometimes "Baile Átha Cliath" (the Irish for "Dublin", the capital city of
Ireland) gets translated as "London" (the capital of the UK). This is due to
Google Translate trying to match up Laws in Ireland (in the Irish language)
with UK laws (which would be very similar or potentially based on the same
original law). However in the Irish law "Baile Átha Cliath" would be replaced
with "London". Here's an example of it:
[http://translate.google.com/#ga/en/L%C3%A1%20alainn%20inniu%...](http://translate.google.com/#ga/en/L%C3%A1%20alainn%20inniu%..).

------
jervisfm
Has the issue been fixed already ? I was not able to reproduce it by doing a
English to french translation of 'filled with' and doing a pronunciation. I
did see the YouTube video demonstrating the problem though.

~~~
jan_g
I can't reproduce it either, perhaps it has something to do with localized and
personalized stuff that Google always tries to slap on every request
(obviously, I'm not from US).

EDIT: it works if I use one of the provided links (see comments below) for US
female voice.

------
rvkennedy
At the risk of engaging in humour on HN, when my computer starts to tell me
"It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again", I will worry.

------
nealabq
"lled wid" and "filmnd widd" also do it. "pilemd wid" and "demd widdd" add the
word "attacks".

"condemned with with end with" and "demned go diamond with" are interesting.

~~~
brownbat
For "demned," see:
[http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/Minister%20Gordon%20Brown...](http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/Minister%20Gordon%20Brown%20condemned%20video)

Original article: [http://mobile.france24.com/en/20090312-dispute-grows-over-
fr...](http://mobile.france24.com/en/20090312-dispute-grows-over-frances-
piracy-law-)

------
donpdonp
TIL: fuzzy search turns up unexpected results that are sometimes amusing.

~~~
inigoesdr
It appears to be slightly more complicated than that.

------
kodeninja
This is so much fun :)

[http://translate.google.com/#en/hi/Bill%20Gates%20went%20to%...](http://translate.google.com/#en/hi/Bill%20Gates%20went%20to%20the%20apple%20store%20enraged%20with)

------
brano
This one is great :) "Bill Gates went to buy his new Surface tablet. But being
filled with so much drama he now praises the iPad."
[http://translate.google.com.mx/?hl=en#auto/en/Bill%20Gates%2...](http://translate.google.com.mx/?hl=en#auto/en/Bill%20Gates%20went%20to%20buy%20his%20new%20Windows%20tablet.%20But%20being%20filled%20with)

------
meric
On Google Now
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW-79Rs7ORo&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW-79Rs7ORo&feature=youtu.be)

From:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/11jr75/need_some_bo...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/11jr75/need_some_body_to_help_confirm_something_on/c6n6n96)

~~~
emehrkay
Does the same thing on the nexus 7, but with a lot of stuttering.

------
obituary_latte
Seems to happen with other words too:

<http://translate.google.com/#en/fr/patterned%20is%20with..>.

Produces: "Patterned is bad" or "Pattern this bad"

------
gambiting
Reproduced this on my Galaxy Nexus.

Video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifsRbAEsaM&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifsRbAEsaM&feature=youtu.be)

------
jstanley
Has this been fixed? I've not been able to reproduce this.

~~~
gramsey
It hasn't, change the resulting language to English and you'll see the issue
is still occuring.

~~~
d0vs
Still doesn't do it for me.

~~~
jghrng
I think you'll need the female voice. No idea how to change that, though.

EDIT: Try the US version:
<http://translate.google.com.mx/?hl=en#auto/en/filled%20with>

~~~
StavrosK
This doesn't work for me, unfortunately. I keep getting the male voice.

------
chrisringrose
Is it just me, or has Google been trolling Apple a lot lately? The "sell"
search "bug" on their stocks site, now this?

------
sroecker
Wow, this speaks volumes about their QA process, especially for Android. This
bug is known since October '12, how hard can it be for a company with 50k
employees to fix a bug like this?

~~~
midko
This has got nothing to do with Android other than the fact that google
translate and voice synthesis is available on Android.

~~~
sroecker
Yes I know, this is a bug in Google Translate. However, the bug was found by a
user using Google Now and was reported in the Android issue tracker. The issue
was described very well and is reproducible. I am criticizing that nobody
seems to check the reported issues and the time it takes for Google to fix the
reported problems.

~~~
smosher
It's a travesty.

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seanlinehan
Trap street?

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antsam
Still works better than iOS Maps did at least.

------
thefreeman
in b4 apple patent infringement suit

