If you’re a translation buyer, you’ve probably heard a lot of buzz lately about the artificial intelligence/machine translation (AI/MT) boom. No question about it, automated translation has come a long way since the early days of Google Translate. But is it, or when is it and when is it not, safe to use AI for translation?Let’s take a look!

如果您是翻译买家，您可能最近听到了很多关于人工智能/机器翻译（AI/MT）热潮的讨论。毫无疑问，自从谷歌翻译这一早期阶段以来，自动化翻译已经取得了长足的进步。但是，使用人工智能进行翻译是否安全，何时安全，何时不安全？让我们一探究竟！

When translators talk about the current iteration of AI/MT, they often comment, this time feels different. What’s different? The fact that everyone knows about, and can easily use, the new generation of AI/MT tools. Translators have leveraged technology for a long time, in the form of translation memory tools that “recycle” terms, phrases, and sentences from old translations (done either by that translator or by someone else).

当翻译人员谈论当前的人工智能/机器翻译迭代时，他们经常评论，这次感觉不同。有什么不同？每个人都知晓并且可以轻松使用新一代人工智能/机器翻译工具，这已是事实。翻译人员长期以来一直利用技术，以翻译记忆工具的形式从旧译文（由该翻译人员或其他人完成）中“回收”术语、短语和句子。

But these tools, like the software tools used by many other professions (think accountants, web designers) were fairly opaque: expensive to purchase, and not simple to learn to use. By contrast, anyone who knows how to use a website (so: anyone!) can hop on DeepL or ChatGPT and paste in their text.

但是这些工具，就像许多其他职业（如会计师、网页设计师）使用的软件工具一样，相当模糊：购买昂贵，且学习起来并非易事。相比之下，任何知道如何使用网站的人（任何人！）都可以到DeepL或ChatGPT粘贴他们的文本。

At the same time, I’m seeing an increasing number of translation clients who come to me, asking, “You don’t use automated translation software, do you??” They ask this for a few reasons:

与此同时，我看到越来越多的翻译客户来找我，问道，“你不用自动翻译软件吧？”他们提出这样的要求，原因在于以下几点：

Many clients want a personal relationship with a translator (whether that person uses AI/MT or not) because they’ve been burned by a different model. Translation agencies fill an important role in the language industry. If you have to translate patient safety information about a medical device into 27 languages, you’re probably going to want to work with an agency. And it’s also true that clients who want consistency, a single point of contact, someone who’s going to know the right questions to ask and the right advice to give, are better off with a freelancer.

许多客户希望与翻译人员建立个人关系（无论该人是否使用人工智能/机器翻译），因为他们曾被不同的模式而受挫。翻译机构在语言行业中扮演着重要角色。如果你必须将有关医疗设备的患者安全信息翻译成27种语言，你可能会想与一家代理机构合作。而且事实上， 那些想要一致性、单一联系人、知道如何提出正确问题和给出正确建议的客户，更适合与自由职业者合作。

As an example, I was translating some materials for one of my French university clients (they have “international programs” that are taught in English, into which they accept students who speak zero French). And I asked them, had they thought about any services or programs for their international students’ parents? Parent relations are pretty much nonexistent in the French university system, and I think they thought I was joking, until I gave them the example of my own daughter’s university, which hosts welcome events for parents, a family weekend, and maintains a parent Facebook group. This French school is a high-priced private university, and I told them that many American parents funding their kid’s education would be looking for this type of thing. AI doesn’t know this!

 例如，我正在为我的一位法国大学客户翻译一些材料（他们有用英语授课的“国际项目”，这些项目接受零法语的外国学生）。我询问他们,是否考虑过为国际学生的家长提供任何服务或项目？在法国的大学体系中，家长关系几乎不存在，我想，他们可能以为我在开玩笑，直到我提到了女儿所在大学的例子，该大学为家长举办欢迎活动、家庭周末，并维护一个家长Facebook群组。这所法国学校是一所高价的私立大学，我告诉他们，许多资助孩子教育的美国父母会寻找这种类型的学校。人工智能对此一无所知!

There are lots of pros and cons to AI, but I honestly think that, “Is there a difference between AI and human translation?” (yes, of course there is!!) is the wrong question, and that we’re better served by asking, “Is using MT or AI for translation the right decision  for the job?”

人工智能虽然有利有弊，但我认为，“人工智能和人工翻译之间有何区别？”（是的，当然有区别！！）这个问题实属不妥，“使用机器翻译或AI进行翻译是否为最佳决策？”才是明智之问。