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ChrisMarshallNY parent
A while back, someone here linked to this story[0].

It's a bit simplified and idealized, but is actually fairly spot-on.

I have been using AI every day. Just today, I used ChatGPT to translate an app string into 5 languages.

[0] https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/superhuman-what-can-ai-do-i...


stephen_g
Hopefully it’s better for individual strings, but I’ve heard a few native speakers of other languages (who also can speak English) complaining about websites now serving up AI-translated versions of articles by default. They are better than Google Translate of old, but apparently still bad enough that they’d much rather just be served the English original…

I guess similar to my experience with the AI voice translation YouTube has, I’ve felt similar - I’d rather listen to the original voice but with translated subtitles than a fake voice.

> they’d much rather just be served the English original

Yes. And the sites that gives me a poorly translated text (which may or may not be translated by ai) with no means to switch to English is an immediate back-button.

Usually, and especially technical articles, poor/unreadable translations are identifiable within a few words. If the text seems like it could be interesting, I spend more time searching for the in-english button then I spent reading the text.

ChrisMarshallNY OP
Exactly. I wouldn't use it for bulk translations. This was literally, 4 words.

What was useful, was that I could explain exactly what the context was, in both a technical and usability context, and it understood it enough to provide appropriate translations.

UPDATE: I went and verified it. The translation was absolutely perfect. Not sure what this means for translation services, but it certainly saved me several hundred dollars, and several days, just to add one label prompt to a free app.

homebrewer
Weblate has been doing that for any number of languages (up to 200 or however many it supports) for many years, using many different sources, including public translation memory reviewed by humans.

It can be plugged into your code forge and fully automated — you push the raw strings and get a PR with every new/modified string translated into every other language supported by your application.

I use its auto-translation feature to prepare quick and dirty translations into five languages, which lets you test right away and saves time for professional translators later — as they have told me.

If anyone is reading this, save yourself the time on AI bullshit and use Weblate — it's a FOSS project.

rs186
If someone reports a translation error, how do you verify and fix it? Especially those tricky ones that have no direct translation and require deep understanding of the language?
ChrisMarshallNY OP
That's an issue, regardless of the source of translation.

For my bulk translations, I have used Babbelon[0] for years. They do a great job. I wouldn't dream of replacing them entirely with ChatGPT.

What I would use ChatGPT for, is when I need to do a very minor change (like adding a simple prompt label to an app). Maybe just a few words.

Doing that through the translation service is crazy. They have a minimum price, and it can take a day or three to get the results. Since I work quickly, and most of my apps are free (for users; they usually cost me, quite a bit), changes can be a problem. Translations are a major "concrete galosh"[1].

With ChatGPT, I can ask, not only for a direct translation, but can also explain the context, so the translation is relevant to the implementation. That's a lot of work for bulk, but quite feasible for small "spot jobs."

As far as responding to reports of issues, that isn't always "black and white." For instance, I live in the US, and Spanish is basically a second US language. But it isn't just "Spanish." We have a dozen different variants, and proponents of each, can get very passionate about it.

For Spanish, I have learned to just use Castilian Spanish, most times. No one (except Spaniards) are completely happy, but it prevents too much bellyaching.

In some instances (like highly local sites), choosing a specific dialect may be advisable.

You verify by having a lot of friends, all over, who are true native speakers of languages. They usually aren't up for doing the translations, but are willing to vet the ones you do implement.

Localization is a huge topic, and maybe I'll write about it, sometime.

[0] https://www.ibabbleon.com

[1] https://littlegreenviper.com/concrete-galoshes/

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