As the use of AI in translations explodes, Quebecers professional association for translators, terminologists and interpreters is sounding the alarm. Although the technology has great potential, it also entails great risks.
MONTREAL, October 16, 2024 /CNW/ – Faced with the rapid emergence of AI-based tools and their growing use by the general public, especially for translations, the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ) is warning the public about the risks of failure to work with a qualified professional when using these tools.
Despite the innovative possibilities created by automated translation tools and chatbots such as ChatGPT, these technologies have their limitations. As OTTIAQ notes, meaning errors are common – especially in complex or specialized documents – and unacceptable cultural biases are often embedded in the output. In translation, such errors can have serious legal, financial or reputational consequences.
An example: a pharmacy customer received an email wishing her death. The perpetrator? An automated translation. Obviously this shocked the customer, but it was the pharmacy’s reputation that really suffered.
Privacy and data security are also at risk, as most free translation tools offer no guarantee that the text entered into them will remain confidential. Furthermore, they actually use that data to produce other content, which violates Canadian and Quebec privacy and data protection laws.
“Having a rigorous, human-led process is the only way to ensure reliable, secure and high-quality language services,” says OTTIAQ president Betty Cohen. “We strongly recommend working with certified translators to avoid potentially costly mistakes.”
As a professional association, OTTIAQ has a legal mandate to protect the public. It does this by informing the public, setting high professional standards and promoting the expertise of its more than 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 interpreters agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ). Given its mission to protect the public, OTTIAQ believes it is important that everyone understands the potential applications 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 to use these tools safely and effectively.
To fulfill its mandate and provide better guidance for the work of translators, interpreters and terminologists, OTTIAQ must keep a close eye on technological developments that impact the language professions. The rapid pace of this progress can be seen in the rise of generative artificial intelligence and tools like ChatGPT. The general public now has access to automated translation tools that are fast and easy to use, but come with a high risk. As a professional order governed by Quebecers Professional Code, OTTIAQ believes it has a duty to inform the public about the advantages and disadvantages of the automated translation and interpretation tools currently available.
What you need to know
Translation is one of the most important applications of artificial intelligence. Neural machine translation (NMT), based on the neural networks used in AI, hit 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 in place processes to detect and correct its errors. So they were early adopters of this revolutionary technology.
The arrival of generative artificial intelligence has not actually changed those processes much. What it has done is provide language professionals with new tools that can improve their workflow, especially when researching terminology. Yet academic and business studies have shown that dedicated automated translation tools produce more specific and accurate translations than translations based on generative AI. While translations produced by generative AI are based on entire documents and can be stylistically superior, they often contain numerous inaccuracies – the product of AI’s tendency to make things up, a so-called ‘hallucination’. In such situations, the involvement of a language professional becomes even more important.
Automated translations can be very useful for content that is simple or general in nature. This is much less the case for more technical or sensitive documents, where poor translation can have serious physical, mental, financial, legal or reputational consequences. Likewise, automated interpreting apps are useful for simple conversations (e.g. while traveling), but cannot replace the services of a professional medical interpreter or court interpreter.
In the interest of public safety, automated translation and interpretation tools should be used judiciously. This means that if there are practical consequences, a language professional must be involved.
Further considerations
Because they are easily accessible to the general public, automated translation tools and generative AI are often presented as miracle solutions for translation and interpretation. But besides the risk of pure mistakes, there are other reasons to proceed with caution:
- Confidentiality – Free automated translation tools do not guarantee that the information you provide will be treated confidentially. Worse still, the data is used to train the AI or produce other translations. In fact, the terms and conditions of some of the most popular apps outright state that any content entered into the system will be reused.
- Data security – The translation tools available to the general public work from servers located outside of it Canada. Its use to process confidential data or personal information is against Canadian and Quebec privacy and data protection laws.
- Quality – Large language models like ChatGPT are trained on billions of gigabytes of online content. The machine retransmits that content and can therefore misinterpret information, reproduce cognitive and cultural biases, not be inclusive, and contribute to declining writing quality by reusing machine output. It is important to remember that AI does not think. Only people can work consciously and from a multi-dimensional perspective.
OTTIAQ’s position
OTTIAQ welcomes new technology and encourages members to use it to deliver the best possible language services. But it also calls on them to integrate these tools into a process approved by OTTIAQ, which must always include at least one round of quality control by a professional. According to OTTIAQ, this is the only way language professionals can uphold their code of ethics and properly protect the public.
Likewise, OTTIAQ calls on the public not to use free automated translation tools without considering the risks outlined above, and OTTIAQ strongly advises anyone in need of quality language services to work with a conscientious, certified professional.
Key Takeaways
- AI-based translation tools have been available since 2016. The technology is not new to translators; it is already part of their workflows.
- Translation tools for the general public can be useful for simple texts of a general nature that do not contain personal or confidential information.
- In any other situation, failure to engage a language professional can have serious consequences
SOURCE Ranking of Québec traducteurs, terminologists and interpreters
For more information: Soumaya Boumazza, communications officer, [email protected]514-845-4411, ext. 1222
