I have been studying machine translation from the very
beginning, in fact, in the 90s I had already tried computer software in a few
language pairs. They were all very bad back then, if you want my opinion.
With time translation software has become better, I must
admit. However, most AI translations still sound like AI text, devoid of style
and life, incapable of understanding figures of speech, irony, humor,
nuances, and the proverbial text between the lines. It does not evaluate nor see intent.
However, I knew that sooner or later it would be widely
adopted as a tool, so I continued to study
several software titles in myriad languages, to remain up on things.
As it stands, AI produced translation still has a major
problem: it reads context very poorly. That, in certain languages, can have
disastrous consequences, for the same word can have different meanings in the
same language, for instance, “recurso” can have several meanings in Portuguese. This can cause all types of nasty havoc. Embarrassment is one such problem.
Legal issues are more serious, for the most popular AI
translation tools around continue make positive negative, and negative positive, with disturbing
frequency. This in a contract can lead to litigation, great expense and loss of
face.
Not only that, AI frequently picks up the wrong translation
for a given term, often leading to hilarious renderings. Certain words have a vulgar and a technical translation, and AI often chooses the wrong one. This means that translation
software fails to connect the dots where the dots are often very important.
Another problem is that AI translation works reasonably when
text is well written. As writing skills are in short order these days, AI is
often used to make sense of the senseless ghastly
collections of words some people call writing. A badly written text will sound wacky, bizarre, after
being put through translation software.
In short, commercial planes are flown by automatic pilot for
the longest part of a trip, but qualified pilots have to take-off and land the
darn things. It is no different with translations.
At the end of the day, one cannot stop the wheels of commerce.
Businesses penny-pinch as much as possible when it comes to translation work,
it has always been so, for it is often seen as nuisance. Now that it is
available a few clicks away, for free, the perception is that we translators
have been highway robbers all along.
I saw the writing on the wall and specialized in editing AI
produced translations, for it is the future of the written translation
industry, whether we translators like it or not. I have been able to turn atrocities and
inaccuracies into good and precise text, even making them enjoyable. When
a client comes to me with “a translation he did”, I already know what that
means. Mr. G did t. Or Mr MS. I only draw the line on certified document translations: I do not accept
AI done translations prepared by clients, after all, I have to certify that I
did it. Those are done from scratch.
Whether AI will ever reach perfection is debatable.
Brazilians, for one, like to be witty, and AI fails to handle wittiness all
that well, so that a culturally competent editor will always be necessary when translation to and from Brazilian Portuguese. In
other words, rather than making it my number one enemy, I decided to coexist
with it. We translators have no choice. I am not that charismatic to become an
influencer at this point in life.
Carlos de Paula is one of the top Brazilian Portuguese
translators in the USA since 1982. And now a top Portuguese AI Translation
editor as well.
