Can AI replace translators? The big question of our century

Automatic translation has improved significantly since the early days of Google Translate. Things have improved a lot and the new translation models do a job that many consider perfect. But there is much more behind it, as we will see now.

DeepL DOWNLOAD

The usefulness of AI-assisted translation in daily situations is unquestionable, such as translating an email or a tweet, but the proposed use of AI in literary translation has been much more controversial.

Now a Dutch publisher has announced that it will use AI to translate some of its books, but the industry is concerned about the consequences if this becomes the norm.

Are translators a simple tool or something more?

Veen Bosch & Keuning says that it will use AI-assisted translation for commercial fiction and has outraged both authors and translators, despite attempts to reassure them with the promise that no book will be translated in this way without thorough oversight and that authors will have to give their consent.

Translators and authors have pointed out that computer-assisted translation requires very careful review and editing, ideally by someone who knows both languages. At that point, that person might be translating the text themselves. Cultural sensitivity is a special concern, as AI is known to produce completely inappropriate things.

However, there are some situations where machine translation could help creators of cultural works. For writers working in minority languages, for example, whose works are not currently translated into English or other languages, AI-assisted translation could attract the attention of many more readers.

And in video games, localization can be one of the biggest costs for small independent developers, especially for those whose native language is not English. In theory, automatic translation of game text could help those developers reach a much wider audience and allow players who speak minority languages to enjoy their games more. But even in this case, there are obvious limitations.

ChatGPT DOWNLOAD

Thus, any video game developer who creates a game with many words and dialogues faces a high localization cost, and it is assumed that they care about the meaning and nuances of those words as much as the author of a book does.

Regarding people’s opinion on AI translation, as they say in The Guardian, there is a clear distinction between utility and craft. Few oppose using AI in the same way as a dictionary, to discern meaning. But translators, of course, do much more than that.