The Status of Artificial Intelligence in Literary Translation

1. The Status of Artificial Intelligence in Literary Translation Translation mishaps often garner significant attention on social media platforms globally, especially when prominent entities are involved or when marketing materials contain egregious errors. Conversely, interest in literary translation typically remains more specialized or niche. www.slator.com

2. But a recent article published by The Atlantic brought some mainstream attention to the subject, describing literary translation as “the last frontier” of machine translation (MT). In 2024, as machine translation (MT) quality continues to improve, particularly for specific language pairs, and with the emergence of AI technology, certain literary translators have noted a change in the projects offered by their publishing house clients. As Crespellière related on LinkedIn, some of the clients are publishers that contract with different, larger publishing companies to provide the translation. French translator Thomas www.slator.com

3. Immediately Suspicious “What made me immediately suspicious was the fact that they wanted me to POST-EDIT the book they would previously translate with machine translation,” Crespellière wrote, explaining that the client offered between EUR 0.03-0.04 per word for this work. “With this type of publisher, there’s little chance of being credited as an author, and even less of receiving the royalties corresponding to the book’s sales,” he added. “And it’s a safe bet that they will sell the MTPE as if it were a 100% human translation.” If literature currently remains an outlier amid widespread acceptance and adoption of MT. www.slator.com

4. While Crespellière did not name names, The Atlantic piece cited several companies already using AI to translate literature, including audiobook specialist Storytel and European online bookseller Bol. Robert Casten Carlberg, the CEO and co- founder of Nuanxed, wrote that he was “proud to share our point of view” in the Atlantic article: “To successfully take on this field with all of its challenges and complexity, we believe in a holistic approach where our close collaboration with linguists to “really nail human- machine translations” is key.” Mincor, a Mexico-based subcontractor for larger language services providers (LSPs), offers a combination of MT-only, MT-and-human, and human. www.slator.com

5. MT Quality for Literature: A Cliffhanger Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) acknowledges that some authors self- publishing their works through the platform might be tempted to use AI for translation to reach a wider audience, but recommends against it. Will academia and translators eventually come around to new, AI- centered workflows for literary translation? Institut für Translationswissenschaft UIBK in Austria just held a conference about AI and creativity translation, which included a session on AI in the translation of children’s literature. www.slator.com

6. By contrast, En chair et en os (“Flesh and Blood”), a movement of writers and translators opposed to AI literary translation, has already gained the support of a significant number of signatories of their “manifesto”. One translator promoting the manifesto noted that “my last 2 literary translation contracts included clauses forbidding AI (not that I would…).” For now, it seems, she and those clients are on the same page. www.slator.com

7. Slator is the leading source of news and research for the global translation, localization, and language technology industry. Our Advisory practice is a trusted partner to clients looking for independent analysis. Headquartered in Zurich, Slator has a presence in Asia, Europe, and the US. www.slator.com