Ask ChatGPT – August 3, 2023

My Conversations with ChatGPT
Machine Translation (MT) and translations generated by AI have brought about a paradigm shift in the translation industry. The output of MT will continue to improve, especially when associated with clients’ translation memories and human editing. Language Service Providers are adapting and are including MT in their processes, when MT is applicable. While linguists will continue to be essential in the process, their role will shift from that of translators to validators of content generated by MT. At Excel Translations, we wanted to know what AI thinks about all of this and decided to have an open conversation on the matter with ChatGPT. I will regularly publish a question and ChatGPT’s response, uncensored.

QUESTION 38:

Will machine translation tools reject any type of subject matter?

Chat GPT’s Response:

Machine translation tools, in general, do not have subjective preferences or opinions. They are designed to translate text from one language to another based on statistical patterns and patterns learned from vast amounts of data.

However, the content that a machine translation tool processes can impact the quality of the translation. Some specific challenges that may arise when translating certain subject matters include:

1. Technical language: Machine translation might struggle with highly technical or domain-specific jargon that is not commonly found in general texts or training data.
2. Slang and colloquial language: Machine translation might have difficulty accurately translating slang, colloquial expressions, or informal language commonly used in social media or specific cultural contexts.
3. Ambiguous phrases: Some phrases may have multiple meanings depending on the context, making it challenging for machine translation tools to determine the correct translation without sufficient context.
4. Offensive or sensitive content: Machine translation systems are often trained on publicly available data, which means they can potentially learn and reproduce offensive or harmful language. Many efforts are made to filter out such content, but it remains a challenge.
5. Rare languages: For languages with limited digital content, machine translation might not be as accurate due to the lack of sufficient training data.
6. Creative or literary texts: Poetry, literature, and creative writing often use unique stylistic features, metaphors, or wordplay that may not translate well in a literal sense.

In some cases, organizations or platforms may implement restrictions on certain subject matters to ensure that machine translation output aligns with their content guidelines or community standards. For instance, translation services for sensitive documents, legal texts, or official communications may require human translators to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.

Ultimately, while machine translation tools can handle a wide range of subject matter, their effectiveness can vary based on the complexity and specificity of the content. Human review and professional translators are often necessary for critical or sensitive content to ensure accurate and appropriate translations.