https://www.influentnaevnet.dk/vedtaegter
https://www.influentnaevnet.dk/vedtaegter
Translators' order cautions public about risks of using artificial intelligence for translation
With the use of AI in translation exploding, Quebec's professional order for translators, terminologists and interpreters is sounding the alarm. Although the technology has great potential, it also poses great risks.
MONTRÉAL, Oct. 16, 2024 /CNW/ - Faced with the rapid rise of AI-based tools and their growing use by the general public, particularly for translation, the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ) is alerting the public about the risks of failing to work with a qualified professional when using these tools.
Despite the
innovative opportunities created by automated translation tools and chatbots
such as ChatGPT, these technologies have their limitations. As OTTIAQ points
out, errors in meaning are frequent—particularly in complex or specialized
documents—and unacceptable cultural biases are often embedded in the output. In
translation, such mistakes can have serious legal, financial or reputational
consequences.
Case in point:
a pharmacy customer received an email that wished her dead. The culprit? An
automated translation. Obviously this shocked the customer, but it was the
pharmacy's reputation that truly suffered.
Privacy and data security are also at risk, since most free translation tools don't provide any guarantee that the text fed into them will be kept confidential. Moreover, they actually use that data to produce other content, which goes against Canadian and Quebec privacy and data protection laws.
"Having a rigorous, human-led process is the only way to ensure reliable, secure, quality language services," says OTTIAQ president Betty Cohen. "We strongly recommend working with certified translators to avoid potentially costly errors."
As a professional order, OTTIAQ has a legal mandate to protect the public. It does so by informing the public, setting high professional standards, and promoting the expertise of its over 2,800 certified members.
OTTIAQ's position on artificial intelligence in translation
The following position on the use of artificial intelligence in translation has been approved by the Board of Directors of the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ). Given its mission to protect the public, OTTIAQ believes it is important for everyone to understand the potential uses and limitations of artificial intelligence in translation, interpretation and terminology. OTTIAQ encourages its members and the public to share this information and stay abreast of the latest technological developments in order to use these tools safely and effectively.
To fulfill its mandate and provide better guidelines for the work of translators, interpreters and terminologists, OTTIAQ must keep close tabs on technological advances that have an impact on the language professions. The rapid pace of these advances can be seen in the advent of generative artificial intelligence and tools such as ChatGPT. The general public now has access to automated translation tools that are fast and easy to use, but come with a high degree of risk. As a professional order governed by Quebec's Professional Code, OTTIAQ believes it has a duty to inform the public of the benefits and drawbacks of the automated translation and interpretation tools currently available.
What you need to know
Translation is one of the main applications of artificial intelligence. Neural machine translation (NMT), which is based on the neural networks used in AI, appeared on the market in 2016, well before generative artificial intelligence.
Professional translators were already using other digital technologies and quickly added NMT to their toolboxes, but not without putting processes in place to detect and correct its mistakes. They were thus early adopters of this revolutionary technology.
The advent of
generative artificial intelligence hasn't actually changed those processes
much. What is has done is provide language professionals with new tools that
can improve their workflow, particularly when researching terminology. Yet
academic and corporate studies have shown that dedicated automated translation
tools produce more specific and accurate translations than ones based on
generative AI. While translations produced by generative AI are based on whole
documents and can be stylistically superior, they often contain numerous
inaccuracies—the product of AI's tendency to make things up, called a
"hallucination." In such situations, the involvement of a language
professional becomes even more crucial.
Automated
translation can be very useful for content that is straightforward or general
in nature. It is far less so for more technical or sensitive documents, where a
poor translation can have serious physical, mental, financial, legal or
reputational consequences. In the same way, automated interpretation apps are
helpful for simple conversations—when travelling, for example—but cannot
replace the services of a professional medical or court interpreter.
In the interest
of public safety, automated translation and interpretation tools must be used
wisely. That means that whenever there are real-world consequences, a language
professional should be involved.
Further considerations
Being easily accessible to the general public, automated translation tools and generative AI are often presented as miracle solutions for translation and interpretation. But along with the risk of sheer mistakes, there are other reasons to proceed with caution:
OTTIAQ's position
OTTIAQ welcomes
new technology and encourages members to use it to provide the best possible
language services. But it also calls on them to integrate these tools into an
OTTIAQ-approved process, which must always include at least one round of
quality control by a professional. In OTTIAQ's view, this is the only way for
language professionals to uphold their code of ethics and properly protect the
public.
By the same
token, OTTIAQ calls on the public not to use free automated translation tools
without due consideration for the risks outlined above and strongly advises
anyone in need of quality language services to work with a conscientious,
certified professional.
Key takeaways
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For more
information: Soumaya Boumazza, Communications Officer, sboumazza@ottiaq.org, 514-845-4411, ext.
1222
SOURCE: Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec - Organization
Profile
Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues
et interprètes agréés du Québec
Emne: Open
letter to Veen Bosch & Keuning in regards to the usage of AI to translate
books into English language - CEATL
6 Nov, 2024
OPEN LETTER TO VEEN BOSCH & KEUNING
IN REGARDS TO THE USAGE OF AI
TO TRANSLATE BOOKS INTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE
We
are horrified to read in The Bookseller about Veen Bosch
& Keuning’s “limited experiment with some Dutch authors, for their books to
be translated into English language using AI”. Veen Bosch & Keuning claim
that they are “not creating books with AI, it all starts and ends with human
action” – yet this is patently not the case.
As
CEATL points out in its Statement on Artificial Intelligence, “AI usage standardises
translations, impoverishing written cultures and languages in general through,
among other things, priming bias and self-pollution.” Studies have
demonstrated that post-editing a literary text generated by AI takes much longer.
Furthemore,
literary translators are already struggling to make a living with their work, a
work that requires a great deal of knowledge, creativity and many different
skills. The publishing sector cannot do without well-trained literary
translators; to pretend otherwise would mean impoverishing the cultural
landscape as a whole.
We
strongly believe that it is very much in interest of every stakeholder in the
book chain – translators, authors, publishers and especially readers – to keep
literary translation human. Machines do not translate, they merely generate
textual material; books are written by human authors and should be translated
by human translators. Imagination, understanding and creativity are
intrinsically human and should not be left out of any literary text.
Regards,
The Board of CEATL
Fælles erklæring om ophavsret og AI, link/
”We
always need a translator in the loop!”
Translating Europe Workshop: Fup og fakta om maskinoversættelse anno 2023
Claus Thornby Larsen, EU-kommissionen og vært sammen med Aarhus Universitet, bød velkommen til de mange fremmødte ”in person”, og de mange deltagere online.
Kunstig intelligens er også ”talk of the town” på oversættelsesområdet, selv om automatisering og maskinoversættelse har været hverdagskost på oversætterområdet i mange år.
Hvordan opfattes maskinoversættelse - MT – af kunder, bureauer og af oversætterne selv?
Europa-Kommissionen er verdens største offentlige oversættelsestjeneste. Måske er private virksomheder som Google Translate og Microsoft Bing større. 35%-40% af de dokumenter, der modtages i DGT, Generaldirektoratet for Oversættelse i Europa-Kommissionen, outsources til externe oversættere.
Maskinoversættelse har over tid bevæget sig fra regelbaserede systemer over statistikbaserede til nu neuralt baserede. Der bruges mange andre værktøjer, fx resumeringsværktøjer og værktøjer til at sammenligne semantik. Centralt i DGT’s værktøjskasse er eTranslation.
Forskerne Tina Paulsen Christensen fra Aarhus Universitet og Kristine Bundgaard fra Aalborg Universitet afstak på et forskningsbaseret grundlag rammerne for debatten. Hvad ved vi, hvad ved vi ikke? Fup og fakta om maskinoversættelse.
Forskningen har bevæget sig fra tekstmining til maskinoversættelse. Alle taler om det … automatisering. Oversættererhvervet var det første kreative erhverv, der blev automatiseret. Nu sker der en sammenkædning af oversættelsesteknologien med den bredere udvikling inden for sprogteknologi.
Andre fag og erhverv kommer til at opleve udviklingen på kortere tid, automatisk tekstgenerering. Generativ AI.
”Natural
language generation” kan deles i data til tekst-generering, ”robotjournalistik”,
versus tekst-til-tekst-generering: ”To produce understandable texts in human
language”. ”No language left behind!”. Det kan være korte prompts til tekster. Automatisk
resumering, automatisk parafrasering, maskinoversættelse. Prompting/prompt
engineering. Prompt literacy er nogle nye begreber, nogle nye kompetencer.
Hvad har oversættelsesmaskiner og selvkørende biler til fælles: De flytter fra ét sted til et andet, fra kildetekst til måltekst. Hvad er oversætterens rolle i maskinoversættelse?
Undersøgelser viser, at post-editing går hurtigere end oversættelse fra scratch. Kvaliteten er steget med neural maskinoversættelse, fx er fluency blevet meget bedre. Men maskinoversættelse laver også fejl, uønskede flertydigheder og kulturelt uhensigtsmæssigt indhold. Maskinoversættelser har mindre varieret ordvalg og bærer præg af kildesproget. Maskinoversættelser introducerer ikke-eksisterende ord og udelader ord i målteksten. Tiltale og formalitetsniveauer er også et problem. Problemer med bias. Ønsket eller uønsket tvetydigheder. Og hvad med det, der står mellem linjerne, tilføjer jeg.
Ophavsret er et centralt problem, som også internationale organisationer beskæftiger sig med. Får oversætteren en mindre central rolle? Det er nødvendigt med en konstant opdatering af kompetencer.
Phrase/Memsource giver et procentuelt estimat over hvor god den selv synes dens maskinoversættelse er.
” Small distance to target text – great distance to target text”. Oversætterne bliver bombarderet med oversættelsesforslag. Men hvad står der egentlig i teksten.
Technical effort – skrivearbejde. Cognitive effort – håndtere teknologi, systemer og output. Der skal bruges mere tid på systemhåndtering end på oversættelse. Tid som der måske ikke gives betaling for.
To beretninger fra oversætterpraksis
|
Natascha Tøsse fortalte om undertekstning.
To use or not to use Svært med idiomatiske udtryk.
Teksterne bliver udstyret med en ”English Master De udenlandske streamingplatforme kommer med teknologien, hvor en tvivlsom effektiviseringsgevinst kun er til glæde for tekstbureauerne. Vi skal blive ved at slå på
kvalitetstrommen! Klag hvis der er fejl i underteksterne! Tjek Undertekster.dk! |
|
Anne Friis overvejede om maskinoversættelse
er en ven eller en fjende. Med Phrase – MT har fire ”engines”.
Anne bruger dem til alle teksttyper. De kan bruges Kvalitetssikring. Autogenererede
forslag kan bruges til at tage
stilling til Maskinoversættelse kan svække
kreativiteten en smule og give mere post-editing. Maskinen læser og producerer
bogstaver og kombinationer af bogstaver. Derfor går Skal vi ændre på vores
serviceydelser – ikke endnu, mener Anne. Skal vi informere Er jeg mindre ekspert hvis jeg
bruger maskinerne? – det udfordrer den Bureauerne fortæller dig hvordan du skal arbejde, og du
får i øvrigt også mindre Opsummering |
Vi skal arbejde os frem til et fælles bud på, hvad oversættelseskunder bør vide om maskinoversættelse og om hvordan den professionelle oversætter skaber værdi.
Der blev
drøftet en række budskaber til opdragsgiverne. Der er et åbent vindue lige nu,
og det er en anledning til at udarbejde en strategi over for markedet.
Vil du vide mere?
Oplæggene fra workshoppen vil blive lagt online efterfølgende. Translating Europe Workshop (TEW) er den decentrale del af Translating Europe Forum, indstiftet af DGT. En ny TEW om undertekstning planlægges til oktober i Europa-Huset i København.
Se billeder
fra workshoppen her/