Using AI translation into English? Here’s what you should know

The use of AI translation software to translate copy – from marketing materials to full-length novels and reference books – into English seems increasingly popular with publishers, marketing agencies and media firms. The savvy ones are asking me to help with this process and in this article, I’ll explain why.

AI translation and the double-edged sword

Not sure why that sub-header reminds me of a Harry Potter novel, but let’s go with it. The advantages of using AI to translate foreign-language text into English are pretty clear. They are, essentially, time and money. AI is cheap, if not free, and very quick. This is important because deadlines really matter in publishing. Missing one can push a book release into the ‘wrong’ season, costing sales, and create bottlenecks in workflows. Delays can also negate any ‘buzz’ around the book and affect financial and reputation management.

In corporate communications, the effects are equally harsh. In crisis comms, failing to reach audiences quickly can be catastrophic. And delayed campaigns leave marketers playing catch-up with rival brands.

So where materials have to be translated, the attraction of speed is pretty clear.

However, translation is an intricate art. In contrast, AI has the nuance of a sledgehammer and a deep aversion to admitting that it’s wrong. At least until a human points that out and forces it to find a different answer. Also, AI translation has no real-world experience to deploy and struggles with some languages and topics, due to a lack of training data.

Which is why I believe that – where time and money allow – human translation is the gold standard. But if time and money don’t allow, it’s good to know the risks of AI translation, and how to limit them.

What’s in a name?

You know what I said about AI having no real-world experience to rely on? Well, sometimes that means it assumes people’s names are adjectives, common nouns or verbs, attributes gender to items that don’t have a gender in English, and all sorts of other shenanigans.

For example, my pre-marriage surname is an offensive slang term for male genitalia in multiple Asian languages including Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi. So while I’m sure my AI-translated autobiography would be greeted with much emotion in South Asia, it wouldn’t necessarily be for the reasons I’d hope for …

Another personal example: I recently tidied up some AI-translated articles that referred to industrial machine processes. One of these referred to the kicked the bucket, the six foot under and machine decease. Yep, somebody’s chatbot had picked the wrong definition of die (apparently using a cockney thesaurus, to boot!)

You see, AI translation often mimics a bad case of Dunning-Kruger Syndrome. The AI text generator seems convinced of its own correctness and presents with appropriate confidence – even when it’s horribly, terribly wrong.

And that is why you need a human to at least tidy it up and make it palatable.

When do the benefits outweigh the risks?

I’m convinced that there are some cases where the risks of AI translation are just not worth taking. And yes, I know that many relevant firms will be using specialist AI that they have developed or customised in-house. But if I was still in medical comms, it would be a cold day in hell before I approved unchecked AI-translated material. The same is true, I suspect, in legal and political contexts. After all, ‘It wasn’t my fault, your honour, it was the AI translation!’ is not a convincing defence in court.

However, I can and do humanise, polish and sense-check less risky AI translations, including fiction.

Fiction is an interesting candidate for AI translation, because AI text generators are strongly inclined towards the blandly correct and derivative, and good fiction is the opposite of that. So the polishing of AI-translated fiction involves not only the correction of mangled idioms and unfortunate nouns, but also the removal of the flat affect that AI so often imposes. That can be a very delicate task. However, if the editor has cultural curiosity and research skill, it can provide good results.

So, if you like the idea of using AI to translate your copy into English – whether that’s a paper you want to submit to a journal, or a novel or play script – why not contact me for a chat?