• Snowclone@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Oh man is translation not possible with AI. You have no idea how little languages have in common. A lot of terms don’t mean a thing, but combine concepts you don’t have or associate to point at a thing.

    My dad said, about learning a new language, ‘‘cat means cat, not gato, don’t translate’’ and I think that holds up pretty well from my experience.

    • HiddenLychee@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I mean given that “AI” are language models built on context and relations between words I’d argue that that’s one of the more applicable jobs compared to what’s listed in OP. With none of them is it capable of doing well, but I just wouldn’t argue that translation is outside that realm of what’s listed above

      • Nangijala@feddit.dk
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        3 days ago

        The problem is that the AI doesn’t understand cultural context. I dunno where you’re from so pardon me for assuming you’re likely an English speaker.

        A good translation isn’t just to translate what the text says but to communicate the same idea to the reader or viewer within their cultural context. A good example is Disney’s Aladdin where Robin Williams improvised A LOT during the recording sessions and most of his jokes are full of contemporary American cultural context. I’m Danish and most Danish kids didn’t understand these American jokes so our translators decided to switch out some jokes with other jokes that conveyed similar points but within a Danish cultural context.

        An AI cannot do that. It will translate what is written and it will be fucking nonsense to the receiver because they don’t understand the context or the references.

        AI is only good at translating as long as what is written can be translated 1:1. And even then I sometimes wonder. Because as a Dane I have noticed how terrible Word is at Danish when it comes to corrections. It follows English language context and will underline correct words in red and suggest alternative that aren’t real Danish. For example, Danish words are slammed together while in English they are separated = skolelærer - school teacher. Word could very well decide to red line skolelærer and suggest to you that you should separate the word and make it two = skole lærer. But in Danish that would nullify the meaning. Now it is no longer a school teacher but a school and a teacher.

        And I have seen on streaming services like Netflix and on steam how they lazily threw descriptions into a translator and it is just the most broken Danish I have ever read. It is so fucked because the newer generations of Danes who use these services are being influenced by them to learn incorrect Danish.

        I have very limited trust in AI to do a better job at it since it isn’t Danish people that have trained it and it doesn’t understand our culture, our history nor how we communicate with one another. Everything that comes out of digital text based platforms from the US is our language filtered and massacred through US context. It is very very bad in my opinion and incredibly lifeless and soulless.

        It would be the same the other way around btw. Me writing a piece of text with significant Danish cultural context and humor, slang and references would be translated into total nonsense for an English speaker, I’m sure.

    • batu@lemmy.today
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      3 days ago

      You can’t be serious, buddy. I’m translating an entire episode with ai and it’s turning out better than the Netflix translation!

      • Hoimo@ani.social
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        3 days ago

        How could you even determine that? And if you have a translation available and you know what’s wrong with it, why wouldn’t you simply fix the mistakes? What do you need the AI for?

        Spoiler

        Netflix subs are often quite shit, so I don’t doubt that you could improve them, with or without the help of an LLM.

      • Frosty_Pieces@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I worked for a huge software company who spent boatloads of money trying to to get AI to do translation, interpretation or localization and I can confirm with the absolute authority of someone who watched that dumpster fire first hand that AI will NOT be taking those tasks for a while.

        If you’re not knowledgeable about the topic you should comment about it.

        • Prime_Minister_Keyes@lemm.ee
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          3 days ago

          If you’re not knowledgeable about the topic you should comment about it.

          Has this also been translated by an AI, or am I missing the point?

          • Frosty_Pieces@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            You’re missing the point. You’re so woefully uneducated on the topic you don’t understand how Google translate was around for ages and didn’t replace interpretation, translation or localization. Why do you think that is? Maybe you should do some research there.

            • batu@lemmy.today
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              2 days ago

              So, no one mentioned Google Translate. Are you guys seriously relying on Google Translate? Plus, your grammar is, uh, perfect.