Can AI Take Over Human Translation Services?

The utilization and constraints of generative AI in translation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the landscape of translation, bringing a level of sophistication beyond readily available Neural Machine Translation (NMT) tools like Google Translate or DeepL. While generative AI wasn’t initially designed for translation, it surprisingly boasts remarkable translation capabilities.

Unlike mainstream Machine Translation engines, the 2023 generative AI technology:

1. Grasps Context
2. Adheres to Rules
3. Comprehends Examples
4. Frequently Generates Accurate Responses

With access to such advanced technology, many organizations might wonder if there’s still a need for professional human translation services. The succinct answer is yes. Despite these impressive capabilities, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools can’t entirely replace the translation services most businesses require. Instead, generative AI should be integrated into a hybrid workflow to enhance the efficiency of the translation process. Nonetheless, delivering top-tier translations, coupled with excellent customer service, continues to demand the touch of human expertise and experience.

One fundamental reason why ChatGPT or AI translation isn’t a standalone solution is its occasional inaccuracies. Precision is often paramount in effective translation, and this alone renders current generative AI tools unreliable when used without human review and guidance. Similar to Machine Translation, generative AI necessitates human oversight to ensure accuracy and adherence to project guidelines. This limitation underscores the importance of embracing generative AI as a supplementary tool for optimized translation services.

Here are four other key reasons why AI translation should complement, rather than replace, professional translation services:

1) Translation Companies Offer Technology to Streamline and Organize Projects

Completing a translation project involves multiple steps, including content transfer between the organization and the translator, along with numerous reviews and back translations. When accomplished through generative AI, these steps require a manual process, demanding the organization’s involvement to maintain content and translations organized. Translation companies offer a two-pronged solution to this challenge:

• Technology: They provide a Translation Management System (TMS) that streamlines the translation process, ensuring efficiency and accuracy. A TMS is especially vital for high-volume projects, where tracking extensive amounts of text is necessary. Custom solutions may even incorporate a connector, enabling direct connection to the customer’s Content Management System (CMS), expediting the translation process and reducing administrative workload for the customer.
• Project Managers: These companies assign experienced, efficient, and proactive project managers responsible for content transfer, shepherding it through the translation process, and ensuring that everything proceeds securely and punctually.

2) AI Translation Can’t Preserve Brand Voice

Brand voice is an integral element of any organization’s identity, allowing customers to recognize and emotionally connect with a business or nonprofit. Entrusting brand voice to AI translation without human review or project management can have a detrimental impact on an organization’s reputation and ROI. Translation companies generally employ multiple strategies to safeguard brand voice, regardless of the number of languages or countries requiring translations. These strategies often involve:

• Establishing a centralized, corporate dictionary and glossary that includes essential terms for the brand voice and can be adapted to the linguistic and cultural norms of target locations.
• Enforcing language style guides to maintain the company’s voice and tone. Human reviewers and translators use AI tools to ensure translations adhere to these guides. Generative AI, when correctly prompted and guided, can assist in upholding the style guide but requires human oversight to ensure it accurately follows the guide and customer expectations.

3) AI Translation Lacks Deep Industry-Specific Expertise

Specialized translation projects often demand in-depth, up-to-date expertise. For example:

• Legal translation requires absolute accuracy, as a single mistranslated word can have severe consequences. Lawyers would never rely solely on AI for legal translations. These projects require translators with knowledge of the relevant languages and a legal background. They must also understand the latest legal developments and the socio-cultural context of the documents being translated.
• Life sciences translation necessitates familiarity with industry regulations and the latest advances in medicine and clinical research. Generative AI may have access to some information, but it can’t consistently choose the most current and widely accepted language and terminology.
• Financial services translation involves complex terminology that can vary from one country to another. Additionally, the correct format must be used, and financial data must be correctly interpreted. Generative AI may have some knowledge, but it doesn’t meet the vast, nuanced knowledge requirements for financial translations.

4) AI Translation Doesn’t Always Meet Legal or Regulatory Requirements

Depending on the industry, translations may need to adhere to specific legal or regulatory standards. AI translation may need human assistance and professional translation services to meet these requirements:

• Financial services companies have stringent requirements for data security. Open-source AI software used by non-professional translators may not meet these security standards. Professional translation services can provide secure AI tools and experienced project managers to ensure data safety.
• Legal systems in certain countries require specific certifications for translations used in legal settings. Generative AI doesn’t have legal translator certification, and it can’t be held liable for errors in the same way a human translator can.
• Clinical research projects must meet complex linguistic requirements for industry regulators, and these requirements can vary by location. An experienced life sciences translation provider is crucial to ensure compliance.
• ISO certifications for translation accuracy and document security may be required by many businesses, especially in life sciences. Generative AI can’t secure ISO certifications, and businesses must rely on a combination of human and generative AI to ensure compliance.

In summary, while AI translation tools offer remarkable capabilities and can enhance the efficiency of the translation process, they can’t fully replace the expertise, oversight, and industry-specific knowledge provided by professional translation services. Collaborating AI with human expertise results in the most accurate and reliable translations, especially in specialized and regulated industries.