Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool, enhancing workplace efficiency and streamlining the creative process. However, despite its impressive capabilities, AI is a digital algorithmic system, making it an impossible substitution for emotional intelligence, creativity, and intuition (see Interpret vs. Translate). In fields like writing and translation, nuanced understandings of culture and context and the human experience are essential. Yet, when used with integrity, AI can be a powerful ally in writing or translation processes, providing inspiration and support while enhancing creativity and maintaining the authenticity of the writer’s voice.
Let’s explore how AI can be used conscientiously and effectively to translate documentation.
Using AI Translation Tools to Generate Initial Drafts
A blank page is often daunting, especially when translating a text into another language. Fast-approaching deadlines add a second layer of pressure to translators who work on projects with a quick turnaround. Using AI, like the “Translate Document” feature in Microsoft Word, to generate an initial skeleton translation of a document shaves off hours of work, alleviating some pressure on the translator and kickstarting the translation process. For example, a 20-page, text-heavy document might take a translator five to eight hours to translate by hand. With AI, this process can be shortened by three to five hours, and the translator can then take their time reviewing the AI-generated translation, checking for grammar, style alignment, and contextual accuracy, which are elements that AI cannot replicate.
Ultimately, incorporating AI into the translation process preserves the translator’s energy for a thorough edit and proofread, resulting in a polished translation.
Using AI for Quality Assurance
After hours of working on a document, a tired mind may struggle to register the meaning of the words it sees. This mental exhaustion is a common challenge many translators face. Artificial Intelligence can serve as an extra set of eyes, helping pinpoint inconsistencies, detect grammar and punctuation errors in real time, and provide instant feedback for revisions. When paired with human oversight, translators can make informed decisions about sensitive topics and biases that AI might overlook.
Additionally, AI can summarize relevant articles or studies, offering translators a quick overview of essential context without requiring them to read everything in detail. It can also access extensive terminology databases specific to various fields or cultures, enabling translators to incorporate specialized vocabulary that enhances precision. With careful use of AI’s capabilities, translators can enrich their vocabulary choices, making their translations more engaging and reflective of the source material's depth.
Using AI for Contextual Research
Cultural awareness and understanding are essential parts of translations. Translators rarely generate a word-for-word copy of a text because their goal is to convey the original text’s meaning to its receiving audience in a way that is both culturally accurate and appropriate. While AI can create a translation, it is incapable of considering contextual meaning that comes from the human experience. That being said, a translator can use AI to navigate unfamiliar or complex cultural contexts.
With the correct prompts and questions, translators can analyze and research cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions, and local customs that may influence their translation. For example, if a translator is working on an instruction manual about assembling a machine they have never seen or heard of, AI can retrieve specific examples of how that machine is used, or about certain materials, tools, or phrases used in the context of that machine, giving the translator a clearer understanding of the context of their translation.
Using AI for Evolving Cultural Context
Language is constantly developing and evolving, and it can be difficult for a translator to keep track of emerging language trends. Translators can use AI tools to track and analyze trends in language use, helping translators stay updated on emerging terminology and changes in language that may impact their work. Artificial Intelligence can be used to highlight new terms and phrases used in specific fields or cultures and can be used to generate multiple phrasing options for the same idea. Translators can then make the proper judgments to select the expressions that resonate most with the target audience.
Using AI for Variety in Vocabulary
One common challenge that translators encounter is conveying meaning between languages that exhibit varying levels of vocabulary richness. For instance, an English document may need to differentiate between "review" and "revise," as these terms refer to distinct steps in the proofreading process. However, both terms would normally translate to the same word "revisar" in Spanish.
Translators can use AI tools that offer synonym suggestions for specific words or phrases to find alternatives that capture the nuances of the original terms. The translator can then choose which AI suggestions are best suited for the most accurate translation. In this example, a translator may opt for “revisar” and “editar” in Spanish as a translation for “review” and “revise.” This process not only enhances contextual accuracy but also helps avoid repetition in the translation, allocating meaning accordingly and making necessary distinctions.
Ultimately, the personal engagement and unique insights that human translators bring ensure a depth of understanding that AI simply cannot match. As translators, it’s essential to remain aware of AI’s limitations and honour our unique capabilities as humans. When used in isolation, AI can misinterpret nuanced meanings and culturally specific references that humans intuitively understand. However, when paired with human emotional intelligence and a deep understanding of linguistic and cultural complexities, AI can enhance translation, resulting in more productive, timely, and enriching outcomes. By thoughtfully integrating AI into workflows, translators can focus on their work's creative and nuanced aspects and maintain high-quality results.
Interested in English-to-Spanish or Spanish-to-English translations? Scriptorium offers specialized professional writing translation services to meet your company's needs. Contact us for more information.
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