Over 430 languages are spoken in the U.S. alone, so it’s only natural for businesses to want to use free translation tools like Google or Apple Translate or even ChatGPT. While these automated services do a decent job, many rightfully ask, “Can ChatGPT Translate Accurately?” and “Can it replace professional translation services?”
The answer might surprise you.
In this article, you’ll learn how:
- ChatGPT misses nuances or idioms, which can be damaging to your brand’s image.
- Critical documents should never be translated with AI – professional translators are still your best bet.
- If you plan on expanding internationally, look for a reliable translation services provider to protect your brand.
What Is ChatGPT Doing In Translation
Just a few short years ago, having an “AI-powered tool” sounded like a sci-fi movie, but fast forward to today; it’s found in almost everything we use. Even phones now have fancy new AI features that I still don’t know how to utilize fully.
The point is that tech has improved quite a bit over the years, and models like OpenAI do well at providing general answers to questions or even generating images – given you have the right prompts to ask ChatGPT.
However, can ChatGPT also help with translation tasks? Anyone who works in the field knows just how complicated languages are, which is why even advanced AI still loses its footing when translating from one language to another – yes, AI translation still isn’t reliable at this point.
I mean, these machines can certainly translate languages much quicker than any translators could, but they fail to recognize finer details that humans naturally understand, like honorifics or expressions. That said, I don’t think AI is to blame for it; learning a language is just complicated to begin with.
Also, documents translated by ChatGPT look good at first glance, especially if it’s not your native language. However, suppose you do get a native speaker to examine them. In that case, they’ll instantly spot the errors – a case in point is our Arabic-speaking staff member, who once complained that reading ChatGPT’s 3-pager translation made them feel like trying to decipher hieroglyphics.
Why Should Translations Be Accurate?
I could come up with an extensive list of reasons why translations must be accurate. Even so, that’s not the point of this discussion, right? So, let’s only focus on what’s most important.
| Areas | Description |
| Legal Documentation | Translation inaccuracies in legal documents are the last thing you’d hope for your business. |
| Medical Field | Mistranslations of treatment instructions can mean life or death to a patient. |
| Business Negotiations | Imagine what would happen if you encountered inaccurate translations while negotiating with foreign business partners. |
| Cultural Sensitivity | Translation mistakes can be offensive. |
Can ChatGPT Translate Accurately?
ChatGPT can not yet accurately translate text. Although there have been reports that it can perform better than other models in terms of accuracy, it’s far from 100% – not even by a long shot. And depending on the language, it can be a complete nightmare. We tested the chatbot ourselves, so I believe I can speak for it.
ChatGPT Often Fails To Translate Idioms
It’s important to understand that translation isn’t as simple as replacing words from one language with another (although I wish it was that simple). In the case of ChatGPT’s translation, it often stumbles and fails to translate idioms or expressions with their intended meanings, especially those with cultural context.
One good example is the Spanish phrase “no hay tu tia.” Its literal translation is “there is no your aunt” – a bit head-scratching, no? That’s because no hay tu tia means “there’s no way around it” or whenever you’re describing something unavoidable (you can verify this with your Spanish-speaking buddies).
The point is, if you use ChatGPT to translate, it will often provide you with similar responses. Although this might be fixed in the near future as AI gets “smarter,” it’s better to let the professionals do it.
ChatGPT is Notably Worse With Uncommon Languages
Another significant flaw we’ve often come across is that ChatGPT can’t produce accurate translations from less commonly spoken languages.
Uncommon languages have significantly smaller digital footprints for AI to train on (compared to languages such as French or Spanish), and this is likely the reason ChatGPT doesn’t appear as intelligent when it comes to unfamiliar languages.
Speaking of unfamiliar languages, try translating texts from English to Amharic or Runasimi, and have a native speaker of those languages grade the work – I guess you know where this is going.
ChatGPT Doesn’t Understand Social Language Cues
Some languages, especially in Asia, have a social hierarchy that’s embedded in their grammar structures – I mean, they say things differently depending on who they’re talking to, like the Japanese. As someone who knows a bit about how AI learns, it’s not surprising that AI translations won’t work well with these languages.
Nihongo (Japanese) and Hangugeo (Korean) are some that use honorifics or the social hierarchy I mentioned earlier. To be clear, I’m neither of these two in terms of ethnicity, but in my experience, these honorifics illustrate the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
For instance, the Japanese say things quite differently when they’re conversing with their boss, family, friends, etc. It’s also similar for Koreans and Thais. Honorifics used aren’t simple words either, as most of these include verbal conjunction, particle usage, and sometimes, an entire parallel of vocabularies – based on the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
ChatGPT Doesn’t Like Complicated Language Structures
If you let ChatGPT translate English into other common languages, like Spanish, you might end up with a fairly considerable translation with a few hundred mistakes per thousand words. However, translating two fundamentally different languages, such as German to Korean, would potentially make the machine question its existence and hold a figurative grudge against you.
Kidding aside, since both languages have quite complicated grammatical structures, ChatGPT tends to flatten these differences by defaulting to simpler language patterns, such as English-like ones. Based on our experience, languages with distinctive features, such as case systems, extensive aspect marking, evidentiality markers, or non-subject-verb-object word orders, typically lose these features in translation.
The result? It completely misses the original context of the translated text.
ChatGPT Hides Bad Translations With Good Writings
After a few runs, we’ve found that ChatGPT prioritizes creating natural-sounding translations over accuracy.
Although this hasn’t happened yet in real-life (and I hope it won’t), if legal documents with a Finnish legal phrase such as oikeudenkäyntiavustaja, which means legal counsel or attorney, gets translated by ChatGPT into something like justice department representative in English, the party who’s using AI as a translator could some uncomfortable consequences, all thanks to ChatGPT’s inability to translate accurately.
Why Choose Ditto Transcripts As Your Translation Partner?
As I’ve pointed out in the last few hundred words, ChatGPT can’t translate accurately, so unless you’re doing it for personal projects, it’s recommended to use reliable translators, which is…We’ve been in the business since 2010, and here’s what we can guarantee:
Straightforward Process: Ditto Transcripts makes ordering translations easy. Your dedicated project manager oversees the whole process, confirming details, assigning translators, managing all steps, and keeping you updated with clear communication. We coordinate everything from large enterprise orders to small personal requests, making translation easy.
Quick Turnaround Times: Ditto Transcripts works fast, delivering accurate, high-quality transcriptions and timely translations. We prioritize prompt turnarounds for all clients, so you can trust us to return your files quickly without compromising quality.
Skilled Human Translators Only: We never use machine translation as our professional translators provide nuanced translations tailored to your content’s unique style, tone, and purpose. Our native linguists capture subtleties within each language, and we guarantee 99% accuracy across all target languages with meticulous quality checks.
Different Languages That Ditto Transcripts Can Help You With
Here are the languages that we can help you translate.
- German
- Old High German
- Arabic
- French
- Spanish
- Italian
- And more
Let’s Get Your Content Translation Started
Let’s discuss how our cost-effective, high-quality content translation strategy can help expand your global reach. Starting at just $0.50 per page with our standard turnaround, get 99% accuracy guaranteed from native linguists. And if you need to translate audio, we’ve also got you covered.
Considering the potential for expanded audience reach, it’s an investment that more than pays for itself. Call (720) 287-3710 today for a free quote, and ask about our free five-day trial.