RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/591  
 
9 May 2022 
(22-3342) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration    
 
 
AI-BASED TRANSLATION TOOLS AT THE WTO : AN UPDATE  
1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  Machine translation (MT) was introduced at the WTO in 2011 in the then Language , 
Documentation and Information Management  Division ( LDIMD). In 2015, as part of an inter-agency 
collaboration, the Division  changed provider s and adopted the technology developed in-house by 
WIPO ( WIPOTRANSLATE 4WTO)  and adapted to the WTO context , i.e., trained  with WTO texts  in the 
three official languages.  The system was akin to Google Translate at the time, and the results were 
not fully satisfactory because the system was still at a n experimental phase.  
1.2.  In 2018, LDIMD launched a pilot project on artificial intelligence (AI ) using the most recent 
WIPO technology. AI -based MT or neural machine translation (NMT) is currently  used by all major  
players in the sector . LDIMD u tilized the basic machine translation engine and trained a customized 
engine on WTO's data ( official docum ents since 1995) for each one of the six working language 
pairs. The service is available in the three official WTO working languages : English, French and 
Spanish . 
1.3.  In 2019, LDIMD  tested another technology developed inhouse by WIPO : speech -to-text 
software  (S2T or automatic transcription) , also based on A i. The tests were conducted with the basic , 
non-customized  engine, which ha d not been trained with WTO recordings and transcriptions  due to 
lack of available data (recordings, automatic transcriptions and ed ited transcriptions) . Since then, 
the WTO has been using this technology  occasionally , and LDSD (formerly LD IMD) has been servicing  
requests from Division s for the automatic transcription of meeting proceedings for the preparation 
of meeting minutes using  this software.  
1.4.  In February 2020, the automatic translation (AT) tool was deployed to the entire WTO 
Secretariat (WTO translation assistant ) for use at its discretion for the speedy and unofficial 
translation of informal communications and other documents for purely information  purposes. This 
led to a self -service by various Divisions and avoided a bottleneck of translation requests for 
unofficial texts.  
1.5.  LDSD conducted a  pilot project using S2T in 2020 with the Administrative and General Services 
Division , and the results were very satisfactory. Other pilot projects were also run with the 
Agriculture Division , the Intellectual Property , Government Procurement and Competition Division , 
and the Informat ion and External Relations Division. This service is particularly helpful for Committee 
secretaries who want a tool to accelerate the process of producing official meeting records from 
audio recordings of delegates' statements. The main use s envisaged so f ar are the streamlining of 
the production of verbatim reports and the discoverability of recordings by searching free text.  It 
should be stressed that the raw output of the automatic transcription software often requires human 
editing prior to  automatic and/or human translation. LDSD can provide these as separate or bundled 
services.  
1.6.  Lastly, LDSD has run experiments to subtitl e videos as requested by Divisions using another 
software, Subtitle Edit. Translators have been trained to use the tool t o produce subtitles and 
translations of subtitles in promotional and educational videos produced by WTO Divisions for either 
internal or external audiences.  WT/BFA/W/591  
 
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  2  THE P RESENT -DAY LANDSCAPE  
2.1.  A panoply of Ai -based tools and technolog ies are currently in wide use at  the WTO, specifically 
in the translation sections of LDSD. These include a computer -assisted translation (CAT) tool, 
Trados, which retrieves previously translated texts (reprise) for the translator who is handling such 
text in new jobs, leading to faster turnaround times and higher productivity  according to industry 
estimates.  WTO t ranslators today operate in an entirely virtual environment, using NMT and a range 
of home -grown applications such as Project Creator for creating their Studio projects, TM Crea tor 
for creating  their own translation memories and Matcher, a WTO -wide te xt base. The development 
of domain -specific translation memories (TMs) means that identical texts in language pairs can be 
exported  for use by external  collaborators and easily retri eved by internal linguists. These memories 
are constantly being fed and updated to include recent documents.  
2.2.  Along the documentation workflow, staff are being trained in the use of the software eXtyles, 
which check s and clean s texts upstream  and creates st andardized XML,  with a view to implementing 
a more automated desktop publishing workflow , creating different outputs from the one XML source 
files (PDF, ePUB, HTML), and using the XML file to feed into the Documents Online (DOL) revamp 
project.  
2.3.  Finally , since 2020, LDSD and ITSD have been working to find a solution for the replacement 
of the in -house Document Management System (DMS). The focus has been to source a commercial , 
customizable , off-the-shelf product through a formal Request for Propos als. The selection of the 
product should be concluded in May 2022, with a view to complet ing implementation by the end of 
2022. It is expected that h aving a modern , fit-for-purpose DMS with an integrated translation 
management system, CAT tool and a resour ce management system will bring many benefits and 
cost-savings to the WTO.  
3  FUTURE  PROJECTS  
3.1.  An upgrade  of the automatic translation (WIPOTRANSLATE4WTO) system is planned for Q 2 of 
2022. This will allow the language technologists in LDSD to retrain the engines with new documents 
and thus improve the quality of the translation output for inhouse linguists and the broader 
Secretariat. In parallel, a new n eural machine translation (NMT) provider is currently being sought 
on the market to replace the WIPO software  as a risk mitigation measure . The selection process for 
an external commercial provider is underway.  
3.2.  Also planned for 2022 is a revamp of the Documents Online (DOL) platform  at the request of 
WTO Members , who seek a more intuitive document search  engine -like and retrieval experience by 
domain as a self -service  rather than an on -demand service provided by the Secretariat to Members . 
3.3.   In sum, the WTO is in the vanguard of language and documentation technologies and is aiming 
for greater automation of workflows while striking the right balance between human intell ect and 
artificial intelligence. In a constantly evolving technological landscape, the WTO is keeping abreast 
of the latest trends and collaborating with other international organizations to create synergies , 
break down silos  and share technologies.  
 
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