DeepL – Everything You Need To Know

Translation technology has become an indispensable tool to easily remove language barriers. Among the many available options, DeepL has established itself as a leading machine translation service providing high-quality translations. Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, DeepL offers highly accurate translations that rival human expertise.

Let's delve into the technology behind the language translator to discover its features and strengths. Keep reading and find out everything you need to know to unravel the full potential of this groundbreaking translation tool.

DeepL was officially launched in late 2017 by Linguee, a Germany-based tech company. The online machine translator quickly rose to fame in the field of machine translation due to its unique approach to translation. Instead of relying solely on statistical methods, DeepL employs а deep learning model, which allows it to analyze and understand language patterns at a deeper level.

This advanced technology, coupled with an extensive multilingual database, gathered for the last 10 years since the existence of Linguee, has earned DeepL a reputation for providing remarkably accurate translations that often surpass those offered by other machine translation services. What is more, DeepL constantly refines its algorithms with the intention to overcome some of the limitations of neural machine translation models used earlier. Today DeepL offers an array of features that can greatly contribute to one’s translation needs without compromising on translation quality.

When it comes to features, DeepL offers a range of advanced tools designed to enhance the translation process. Here are some of them:

DeepL Translator

The flagship product of the company is DeepL Translator. It enables users to precisely translate text or entire documents. It supports 29 languages and boasts a user-friendly interface that simplifies the translation workflow. The translator uses a deep neural network model that has demonstrated high efficiency in producing more fluent and natural translations.

DeepL Browser Extension

DeepL also offers a browser extension, allowing users to enjoy great translation quality while reading or writing within Chrome and Microsoft Edge. With the free version of this feature, you can translate your own words right after typing them or view whatever you are browsing in your chosen language. If you subscribe to the PRO version of the tool, you will then be able to translate entire web pages in just one click. DeepL is currently available only for two browsers but more are yet to come.

DeepL API

DeepL API enables developers to incorporate the power of DeepL's translation technology into their own applications, opening up new possibilities for integration and customization. DeepL API has emerged as a go-to solution for individuals and businesses seeking reliable, high-quality machine translation services. Companies can now build their products and applications more easily, translate entire documents, create their own glossary, and benefit from many other exciting features thanks to DeepL API.

DeepL Write

Launched in 2023, DeepL Write is the latest addition to DeepL’s family. It allows users to perfect their writing with the help of this tool which can fix mistakes and re-phrase sentences. It is currently available only in English and German, yet more languages are to be added. DeepL Write can be used on desktop or mobile browsers for even more convenience.

DeepL stands out as a world-class translation system due to its cutting-edge technology and proven accuracy. Like many other translation systems, DeepL utilizes the latest AI innovations for its translation process. However, DeepL's researchers have made significant advancements in four key areas to enhance the overall methodology.

Unique Network Design

One of the critical factors contributing to DeepL's exceptional performance lies in its network architecture. While most translation systems are direct modifications of the Transformer architecture, DeepL has developed its own unique network topology. This distinctive architecture, incorporating attention mechanisms and other novel components, significantly improves the quality of translations compared to existing state-of-the-art models.

Curated Training Data

Another key aspect is the training data. DeepL recognizes the importance of acquiring specialized and high-quality training data. Unlike major tech companies that have extensive web crawling capabilities, DeepL focuses on targeted data acquisition methods. The company has developed specialized web crawlers to automatically discover translations on the internet and evaluate their quality. This approach ensures that the network is exposed to relevant and reliable training examples, which is respectively leading to better and more natural translation results.

Advanced Training Techniques

DeepL's training methodology goes beyond the conventional "supervised learning" approach commonly used in public research. While the network is trained by comparing its translations with the provided reference translations, DeepL also incorporates techniques from other areas of machine learning. This hybrid approach is another aspect that significantly improves the training process, resulting in enhanced translation quality.

Optimal Network Scale

Despite the enormous computational requirements of training networks with billions of parameters, DeepL ensures efficient utilization of network resources. While large tech companies train massive networks on dedicated compute clusters, DeepL focuses on optimizing the parameter usage of their networks. As a result, they achieve comparable translation quality even with smaller and faster networks, enabling them to provide high-quality translations to users of their free service.

DeepL's neural networks possess a remarkable ability to capture subtle intricacies and faithfully replicate them in translations, setting it apart from other translation services. In order to evaluate the proficiency of their machine translation models, DeepL consistently conducts blind tests, where professional translators impartially choose the most precise translation without any knowledge of the source provider. Not to mention the fact that DeepL has consistently outperformed its competitors by an impressive margin of three to one.

Another great initiative of DeepL is their call for talented mathematicians and computer scientists to join their team. By collaborating with experts in the field, DeepL aims to drive further development, refine DeepL Translator, and break down language barriers worldwide.