Some two decades ago when Google Translate was launched, it was an evolutionary event. Technology has always played a part in the evolution of mankind since the prehistoric age. When the nomadic man developed stone tools for hunting and self-defense, he ushered in the primitive era of technology. In the course of his evolution, he discovered wheel, fire, more refined instruments and complicated ‘machines’. Today, ultimately, we are living in a highly technology-driven era. This process of ‘evolution’ is not going to cease and we faintly can imagine what ‘wonders’ are yet to be revealed.  Whatever be the form and complexity of technology, one thing is sure: technology is meant to ease the efforts of mankind and equip him with greater efficiency. Thus, technology is a ‘friend’ and not a ‘foe’—a ‘slave’ and not a ‘master’. The problem starts when machines and technology are allowed to undermine the existence and dignity of mankind. This is what Mahatma Gandhi meant when he said: “I am not opposed to machinery as such. I am opposed to machinery which displaces labour and leaves it idle.”

No sane man can afford to oppose the idea of machines and technologies. In fact, human body itself is a ‘machine’ with all vital components and the most intricate systems. We cannot say, without staking our very survival, that we will not use this god-built machine. Likewise, we cannot fix a nail without the use of a hammer. As such, modern translators, writers and creators in any field will vainly oppose nascent technological developments like AI, Google Translate and so many Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. Traditional translation is changing and the new technology must be embraced.

In the beginning, many sincere translators (including me) were hesitant in using Google Translate. Some other translators used it sparingly. It was observed that GT was struggling hard to translate a given passage from English to Hindi, for example. Translators in other language pairs might also have experienced the same level of inefficiency with GT. If it was a simple sentence structure, GT would give you a perfect translation but if the syntax was difficult or complicated, the translation quality was not good. However, Google Translate has evolved since then and now attempts to give a much better and reliable output. The same is true about various AI platforms.

The gradual perfection now being reflected by Google Translate and other AI tools is closely linked with human knowledge. GT and AI learn from you; they do not have any inherent knowledge or wisdom. This is where we clearly see the inter-dependence of man and machine—human brain and artificial intelligence. AI is nothing but the “collective mind” of mankind integrated into a super wide network. And it is always good to use the collective mind because often, if not always, a collective conclusion is better than an individual conclusion.

If a translator uses Google Translate (or AI), he or she has several advantages:

It saves on your time: You spare yourself from manually typing everything. You do not have to “think” too much and the machine translates all the passages. Thus, it speeds up your work.

It increases your output volume: If an average translator can translate 3000 words a day, for example, the new technology helps to achieve a target of, say, 5000 words. It means more earning in less time … with minimal effort!

It saves you from pitfalls of typos, missing strings, spelling errors…: When a translator is struggling to render the source text into target text, it’s very natural to misspell some words or omit a sentence or two. A machine is usually flawless in such matters, sparing you from the error of ‘missing translations’.

It carefully handles long sentences: Translators often come across long and difficult passages, especially in legal and philosophic documents, where a number of phrases, clauses, parentheses, and multiple verbs make the syntax often very tangled. Google Translate (and AI) can handle such sentences with comparative ease and error-free manner. However, the intervention of human translator is very important to ensure that the machine has not spoiled the meaning and integrity of the text.

Why should translators use AI or Google Translation?

Translation is not an easy task. You are struggling to render not only the text but its true meaning and exact tone and weight into a different language. Most of the time, though the target language is your natural mother tongue, the source language is usually what you have artificially learned and mastered, and yet you are not ‘native’ to that. That’s why you become tired after sitting for an hour or two before your laptop. When you use AI tools or Google Translate, much of your sweating is spared. Is it bad?

Some translators tend to declare with a vainglorious tint that they do not use GT. Even some translation agencies send a firm instruction to their translators – Do not use Google Translate. Methinks, the time is ripe that we should give up such obstinate reservations. Does a linguist not use a dictionary? Do you not consult a suitable lexicon when you want to know the exact applicable meaning of a certain word in a certain domain, such as banking or finance? Nobody says that by using a dictionary, he or she is doing something ‘wrong’. Rather, he or she is trying to be perfect and professional. Using a dictionary does not mean that the translator (or the writer) is inefficient. When you are ill with complicated symptoms, the doctor sends you for a series of pathological tests, screenings, X-rays, MRI, ultrasonography and so on. Does anybody say that the doctor is inept, he cannot find the cause of disease on his own? A linguist uses dictionaries, a doctor uses various screenings – not because they are inefficient but because they are professional and want to leave no chance of error. Despite this, the linguist weighs the words suggested by the dictionary and uses his or her own wisdom in choosing the appropriate word; and the doctor does not blindly rely on screening results but uses his or her own clinical observations to give the final diagnosis and treatment. Under the same logic, a translator should feel free to use all the resources available to him (AI and GT included) to give the best output, but he or she should use his or her own judgement and not blindly rely on technological tools. Get it machine translated but check thoroughly – the ultimate decision should be yours and not of the machine.

Limitations of AI and Google Translate

Body Vs. Soul

A linguist should know the limitations of machine translations and content creations. As said earlier, these new technological tools do not have their “own brains” – they use the “collective brain” of mankind. They cannot access anything that is not imagined, created, expressed by you and me till date. It also means that if mankind becomes totally dependent on machines from now onward, one day the storehouse of their reasoning and creativity will be exhausted. Then, like in the case of archetype gramophone records where the needle used to get stuck in a groove and the same words would get repeated, the AI and GT will also get stuck on a point and lose their importance. Remember, only YOU can think and decide and not the AI. And this storehouse of imagination, fresh ideas, innovative thinking, fanciful expression of the most mysterious and occult patterns of human mind is something God or Mother Nature has bestowed upon YOU alone and no machine can plunder it. The machine may be body, but you are Soul. This truth should always be borne in mind while using tools like AI or Google Translate.

Cultural Nuances

Language is a product of culture, and culture is even more complex than any machine. It enshrines thousands of belief systems, religions, traditions, feelings and viewpoints. Language expresses these elements in countless unique ways – using idioms and phrases, jargon and articulations of its own kind. Each language is unique – something that is said in Persian cannot be exactly expressed in any other language. A Chinese proverb cannot be exactly translated into Spanish. Even in a single country like India where hundreds of languages and dialects are spoken, something that is expressed in Bhojpuri or Maithili cannot be truly translated into Hindi. Despite this, human translators—using their best possible literary prowess—try to bridge the language gap with due care of cultural nuances. It will be far-fetched to believe that AI tools will ever be competent enough to match with this ever growing cultural evolution of mankind.

Words: their meaning and context

A word has several meanings and not the same meaning can be blindly applied in a uniform fashion. ‘Currency’ does not only mean banknotes of a country but also something that is related to popular belief. In a language, sometimes there is a very subtle shade of idea where AI cannot differentiate between the two meanings. The Sun is not the same as Helios and the Moon is not the same as Luna even if the words refer to the same objects. I was privileged to translate a number of Bahá?í holy books. I also had the opportunity to translate some Christian books. The translations were later reviewed by a Review Team in which I was also present, and we learnt that when we translate such holy texts, maintaining a balance between the true meaning and the dignity of words used by a Messenger is of utmost importance –none of the two can be compromised. The dignity and weight of the words, for example in a translation of the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita, cannot be the same as in a travelogue.

Knowing the audience or the reader and setting the language tone accordingly is a task for which only a human translator can be relied upon, not a machine. Words need to be selective and specific across various domains. The same level of words and style cannot be equally applied when translating legal, financial, educational, recreational and spiritual contents. Moreover, a word or a sentence can convey subtle moods that GT or AI cannot grasp. “Ah, so ultimately you came!” – depending on context, this expression may be suggestive of a welcoming gesture, a taunt, grief or satisfaction. Such dealings with words require minute wisdom, and machines—however advanced—cannot be relied upon for this vital task. If my beloved comes to meet me, I must be present myself, I can’t deputize my servant to embrace her!

Translation of poetry, emotive texts and classic literary pieces

Poetry usually follows a definite rhythmic pattern—a meter, uses metaphors and similes and expresses some of the sublimest ideas of human mind. Even for the most renowned human translators, translating poetry from English (for example) to Hindi has been a Herculean task and only few of them could preserve the sublimity of the original. Many great novels from world-renowned litterateurs have been translated into Hindi. How satisfied are we with the standard of these renderings vis-à-vis their respective originals? You can even see subtitling of many wonderful movies where lyrics and cinematic expressions are rendered into Hindi or English. Observe them and see for yourself how the translators struggle to present the exact meaning and they mostly fall short. Well, these mountains of literary expressions which even the mightiest ‘giants’ among our human translators have failed to surpass, will be transcended by the AI tools in the near future is but a childish whim!

Transcreation

Transcreation is yet another area where human translators are irreplaceable. With global giants trying to penetrate local markets, the need for localization of their products and contents is expanding. Again, cultural nuances and touching the pulse of local customers pose a major challenge in this area. Here, only literal translation is not sufficient, rather transcreation is needed so that the products and services are ‘internalized’ by the local mass. All multinational companies insist on transcreation, and not just translation. I personally had the opportunity to translate into Hindi a comics series for children and I knew how difficult it was for me. The slang expressions of English cannot be easily translated into Hindi, you have to be creative and find similar expressions in Hindi, and if there are not, you have to invent ones—something far beyond the ken of Google Translate and AI tools!

Translation of highly formatted and scanned docs

To the best of my knowledge, machine translation has not proved to be very successful in translating highly formatted, tabulated, scanned and image-rich documents such as business or executive reports, legal documents, mark-sheets, presentations with lots of graphs, pie charts, tables, etc. Even if you use AI or Google Translate to handle such complex documents, there are chances that the format will be disturbed and the translation will not be true. Therefore, only human translators can be relied upon for such sensitive documents and presentations.

Will human translators be replaced?

There is no doubt that AI and platforms like Google Translate are advancing day by day and striving to be more perfect than a few years ago. They are learning, imbibing thousands of new words in their expanding memory, embracing more and more language pairs with more and more modes of expressions, and this is good because it will ultimately benefit the writers and translators themselves. This fear is temporary and pointless that AI and Google Translate will replace human translators and content writers. When a new technology is introduced, such fears amass and, no doubt, some layoffs are also witnessed but, ultimately, new necessities, new challenges, new horizons appear and soon the inevitability of mankind and his supremacy over machines is established.

In my opinion, while translators and writers should feel free to use AI tools, they should not mortgage their own discretionary faculty. This is what will save their existence! Nowadays, as things like GT and AI are free, any ABC comes on the internet, inserts an amount of text in the machine, gets it translated and uses it like a victorious Alexander. This tendency of ‘playing with language’ will lead to a disastrous tomorrow. Sincere translators and writers should be there to check this malignancy.

The price of development

Growth and development is good and natural but we should not forget that each development asks for its price. When there was no radio, people were closer to nature and their fellow brothers and sisters. Walking, outing, picnicking and meeting with friends and relatives were natural pastimes. Radio came and human ears started to forget the chirping of birds. We, no doubt, began to know what is going on in other countries but the voice of our own neighbourhood started to wane. Then came television. Children who used to read about fairies and gnomes, knights and nymphs, and kindle their imagination thinking how they would have looked and walked, were suddenly pulled off their books and their faculty of imagination was looted. The new development of the internet and social media, robots and Artificial Intelligence also claims its price and we are paying it. If machines will do everything, what will humans do? If we stop using our own brains and kindling our own inherent desire to excel over the rest of the creation, what difference remains between man and machine?

It is good to use AI tools, it's not bad to seek the help of Google Translate but let not your own creativity die. Sometimes forget these tools and translate on your own so that the writer and translator inside you does not die. It’s fine to borrow some ‘collective wisdom’ but you also have a ‘personal heart’ and it seeks your private attention. As Allama Iqbal has urged:

Good if Mind accompanies Heart as a watchful sentry
But sometimes let Heart breathe ... un-watched and free!

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