Dutch Publishing Company to Use AI to Translate Books

A major Dutch publisher is planning to translate books into English using artificial intelligence and it caught my interest. AI has been unpopular with many people and organizations but it is fast and convenient. And now, if this trial by Veen Bosch & Keuning is successful, the publishing industry will follow suit.

Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) is the largest publisher in the Netherlands and was acquired by Simon & Schuster earlier this year. They will be using AI to “assist in the translation of a limited number of books” according to Vanessa van Hofwegen, commercial director at VBK.

“This project contains less than 10 titles – all commercial fiction. No literary titles will nor shall be used. This is on an experimental basis, and we’re only including books where English rights have not been sold, and we don’t foresee the opportunity to sell English rights of these books in the future,” she said.

Authors were asked permission for this project, something that is a big deal when it comes to AI. Many AI software don’t compensate for the data that the AI uses and people are made and rightfully so. But will these AI translated books be accurately translated? I don’t think that they will.

If you have ever used AI, then you know that the end result is often times bland and filled with mistakes. For example, many AI images often have people withextra fingers and limbs. And that problem will be multiplied tenfold because which words the author uses in a novel impacts the message, tone, and the storytelling aspect of the book. AI will definitely butcher this and the books will be reviewed by humans to fix these mistakes.

I have been reading a lot more books that are translated over the past couple of years and I know that the translations are never perfect. Some words or phrases don’t translate well and it is up to the author to convey the meaning of the sentence as best as they can. With AI, that won’t be the case because it won’t understand the importance of what the original author was trying to say. Removing the human element in a translation is a recipe for disaster.

“Taking the translator out of the loop opens the door to incorrect or misleading translations that will serve readers poorly,” said David McKay, a Dutch to English translator. McKay also said that he understands that publishers want to “increase their efficiency” but it “sound very reckless”.

“If I were one of Veen Bosch & Keuning’s authors, I would be very worried about how these AI translations will reflect on my work and affect my reputation.”

There is definitely potential there with this technology but I think it needs to be done with a person and AI working together to ensure that the translation is correct. Removing the translator from the equation will create books that remove the most important aspect of the novel that made readers a fan of the work in the first place.

The success or failure of this technology may reshape the publishing world as we know it. Imagine any novel or book being translated in a day. Publishers would increase their profit tenfold so I can see why they want this to succeed. But at what cost? This is a trial that I will be following closely to see what happens and how successful it ends up being.

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