Blog post: Human or machine?

10 January 2024

These days, the big question seems to be: human or machine? This applies to a lot of fields, but specifically to translation, because the results of machine translation "sound so good"!

But are the results as good as they sound?

Machine translation is fine for unofficial translations or if you just want to get the gist of a text (maybe to decide if you want to have it translated professionally). Never use machine translation if your text contains critical information: think of medical, technical or legal texts that could lead to problems (or worse...) if they contain mistakes. Machine translation is also not a good choice if your text is for publication, contains many cultural references and/or needs to be written in a style that is specifically adapted for the audience you are trying to reach, such as advertising texts or books (both non-fiction and fiction).

Always keep in mind that machine translation (and this includes ChatGPT and all its variations) doesn't actually understand language. All it does is replace words and phrases based on algorithms.

Professional translators don't just replace words. They interpret and translate the message of a text and, where necessary, adapt it to the target audience. They don't need to be endlessly prompted to come up with a correct translation, they don't hallucinate, and they don't produce verbose texts full of clichés. And their personal computers don't use enormous amounts of energy and water (a good cup of tea or two will do).

Unsure about what would be the best solution for your specific text? Find a professional translator who specialises in your specific type of text. Or any professional translator: we all have an extensive network of colleagues working in different language combinations and different areas of specialisation, so even if we can't help you ourselves, most of the time we will be able to find someone for you who can.