Using AI for Translation: (When) is it Safe?

By Corinne McKay
If you鈥檙e a translation buyer, you鈥檝e probably heard a lot of buzz lately about the artificial intelligence/machine translation (AI/MT) boom. No question about it, automated translation has come a long way since the early days of Google Translate. But is it, or when is it and when is it not, safe to use AI for translation? Let鈥檚 take a look!听
When translators talk about the current iteration of AI/MT, they often comment, this time feels different. What鈥檚 different? The fact that everyone knows about, and can easily use, the new generation of AI/MT tools. Translators have leveraged technology for a long time, in the form of translation memory tools that 鈥渞ecycle鈥 terms, phrases, and sentences from old translations (done either by that translator or by someone else).听
But these tools, like the software tools used by many other professions (think accountants, web designers) were fairly opaque: expensive to purchase, and not simple to learn to use. By contrast, anyone who knows how to use a website (so: anyone!) can hop on DeepL or ChatGPT and paste in their text.听
Just because you can translate with ChatGPT or other AI tools, should you?听
Translators love to fixate on and make fun of AI/MT鈥檚 (frequent) hilarious errors. I translate from French to English, and I recently had a client ask me to review a translation in which their MT engine “translated” the name of the Swiss town “Aubonne” as “Augood.鈥 The truth is that, although AI/MT is now quite accurate for 鈥渋nformation-only鈥 translations, most professional translators can identify an automated translation after reading the first couple of sentences.听
Just like every human鈥檚 writing style, every AI engine has a writing style, and it鈥檚 easy to spot! AI has very little understanding of nuance, subtlety, humor, or any of the other aspects of really good writing; it鈥檚 much faster than a human translator when it comes to 鈥淔rench word=English word鈥 translations, but AI stumbles when it comes to well-crafted writing.听
Here鈥檚 the real question: is MT or AI-powered translation the right fit for your work? If you just want to know what something says in your language, or if you鈥檙e just trying to convey factual information in another language that machine translation engines handle well (don鈥檛 try this with less common languages!), AI/MT with a human reviewer can be a great option.听
A fast human translator can translate about 3,000 words in a typical workday. ChatGPT can do that while you grab a coffee, and 鈥渇ree鈥 is obviously everyone鈥檚 favorite price. If you鈥檙e just trying to understand the basic terms of a contract, or if you want to write a quick, non-mission-critical e-mail, machine or AI language translation听 can save a lot of time and money.
At the same time, I鈥檓 seeing an increasing number of translation clients who come to me, asking, 鈥You don鈥檛 use automated translation software, do you??鈥 They ask this for a few reasons:
- They’re afraid, probably correctly, that confidential documents uploaded to an online AI/MT system may end up on the AI provider’s servers.听
I know that the paid versions of most MT engines promise not to do this, but I still think that clients worry about it, particularly in certain sectors. I translate for a couple of international family law firms, and here we’re talking about evidence documents that contain people’s most personal information: the details of why their kids were taken away, transcripts of phone calls between them and their abusive ex-spouse, the details of their investment portfolio and how it might be divided in a divorce, etc. etc. Those clients want as few eyes as possible on their documents.
- They, too, are word people.听
The best and the worst thing about translating with ChatGPT, DeepL, etc. is that an AI/MT tool doesn鈥檛 spend half an hour thinking about the difference between three potential article headlines. DeepL doesn鈥檛 lie awake at night pondering the difference between the words 鈥渋nquire鈥 and 鈥渄elve into,鈥 or the difference between 鈥減rofits rose significantly鈥 and 鈥減rofits skyrocketed.鈥 When your business wants to inspire an emotional response in a reader; persuade or convince someone; when your business鈥 reputation or legal risk are on the line, you really want a specialized human translator on the job.听
- They’ve been burned in the past.听
Many clients want a personal relationship with a translator (whether that person uses AI/MT or not) because they’ve been burned by a different model. Translation agencies fill an important role in the language industry. If you have to translate patient safety information about a medical device into 27 languages, you鈥檙e probably going to want to work with an agency. And it’s also true that clients who want consistency, a single point of contact, someone who’s going to know the right questions to ask and the right advice to give, are better off with a freelancer.听
As an example, I was translating some materials for one of my French university clients (they have “international programs” that are taught in English, into which they accept students who speak zero French). And I asked them, had they thought about any services or programs for their international students’ parents? Parent relations are pretty much nonexistent in the French university system, and I think they thought I was joking, until I gave them the example of my own daughter’s university, which hosts welcome events for parents, a family weekend, and maintains a parent Facebook group. This French school is a high-priced private university, and I told them that many American parents funding their kid’s education would be looking for this type of thing. AI doesn’t know this!
There are lots of pros and cons to AI, but I honestly think that, “Is there a difference between AI and human translation?” (yes, of course there is!!) is the wrong question, and that we’re better served by asking, “Is using MT or AI for translation the right decision听 for the job?”
About the Author
Corinne McKay is an ATA-certified French to English translator and a Colorado court-certified French interpreter. A full-time freelancer since 2002, she served on the ATA Board for seven years, including as ATA President from 2017-2019. She is the author of How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, a how-to guide with over 15,000 copies in print.
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Hi Corinne,
Your comment on confidential information being uploaded on a AI/MT tool is so right, especially in legal matters. That is why many law firms and legal departments require translators to agree in writing not to disclose confidential information, in particular when using AI/MT tools.
More often than not, legal documents are translated on a word-for-word basis, and sometimes the result is nonsensical. Thus, the translator must use it wisely and no accept it as the final product. I just came across a full English translation of the Mexico’s Ley de Concursos Mercantiles (translated as Business Bankruptcy Law) that might have been traslated using AI/MT tools; in my view, it is quite deficient: (). It failed to use a comparative-law approach to properly identify the legal concepts involved, something that the new technology is not yet ready to do.
Best regards