AI translation at Språkbolaget

AI – artificial intelligence – is used today in many industries and translation is no exception. AI translation is a serious factor in the language industry today, unlike the more rule-based machine translation that emerged in the 2010s and delivered quality that was too poor to be a reasonable alternative. Today's AI-based translation services perform at a completely different level of quality – if you know what you're doing. Today, AI translation, when used responsibly and with discernment, can deliver good results and reduce translation costs. However, the technology demands expertise and also entails financial, confidentiality‑related and reputational risks.

In short, one can say that AI translation has reached a level where, for certain texts and language combinations, the technology can deliver a useful rough translation at very low cost, leaving the human translator, who costs more per hour, to take care of post-editing, polish and quality control. However, there is a risk of overestimating the cost saving for the rough work while underestimating the costs for post-editing and quality control. Overall, AI translation can reduce the total time required for certain projects, but not by as much as one might think.

AI translation is a practical application of the rapidly growing technology generative AI – creating new content based on patterns in existing data (in this case, previous translations into the target language). AI translation uses statistics, large language models and huge amounts of training data to give the impression of understanding a text and being able to translate it into another language. The first thing one must be aware of is that AI does not ”understand” anything. Only humans understand. But AI can see patterns and imitate understanding in a very convincing way.

Raw AI translation – i.e. machine translation straight from a computer – can be used in private contexts or to get an idea of what a text is about. Anyone can paste a text into a free online translation service and get an unchecked result that often looks neat on the surface. But using raw AI translation in sensitive or professional contexts is risky. Cost-free is not the same as free. When you send data to a free AI service, you also give the service the right to freely use and forward that data. ”If you're not paying for the product, you probably are the product.”

AI translation is constantly improving, but is still far from good enough. AI translation must always be supplemented with post-editing. This technique is also known as Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE). The terms PEMT (Post-Editing of Machine Translation) and validation are also used. Post-editing is always carried out using a CAT tool (Computer-Aided Translation). Språkbolaget, along with all professional translators, has been using CAT tools since the start of the millennium to make effective use of previous translations and databases, adhere to clients' glossaries and maintain consistency in terminology. In AI translation with post-editing, an AI translation service – also known as an MT engine – is linked to the CAT tool and acts as an additional database or source of information. The translator works through the text, critically reviewing each individual AI-translated segment and making corrections where necessary. The AI translation service, for its part, records the changes made by the translator and adapts its language to the translator’s style, helping to ensure a consistent style throughout the text – this is known as Adaptive AI Translation. The translation takes place on a server physically located inside the EU and certified to ISO 27001:2022 to guarantee confidentiality and the non-disclosure of data. Once editing is complete, the translator activates the quality control function, which, under the translator’s supervision, checks for any remaining spelling and grammatical errors, reviews all numerical values and units, and among many other things, verifies that the client’s specific terminology is used. AI functions also support the quality control process, but the human eye and the judgement of a translator with many years” experience are crucial factors at this stage. It is well known that AI translation can hallucinate, i.e. invent content out of thin air that looks very credible and which requires a critical human eye to spot. The AI translation itself is not free of charge in a professional context, but it represents a relatively minor cost factor in the overall picture. The bulk of the cost lies in the post-editing and quality control stages.

We have been delivering classical translation for decades. This means we select a working group of experienced translators and reviewers suited to the individual translation project. Our translators are native speakers of the target language, possess extensive knowledge of the subject area in question, and are therefore able to understand the text in depth and deliver a translation that, in addition to being linguistically and terminologically correct, also addresses the target audience at the right level and with the right tone.

In AI translation, AI does the heavy lifting at low cost and leaves the translator to handle post-editing, quality control and polish. That division of labour can work to varying degrees of success depending on the language combination and subject area. When translating, for example, a simple user manual or datasheet between two major Western European languages, raw AI translation can go a long way, allowing the translator to concentrate on details and terminology. In such cases, the total cost of translation can often be significantly reduced compared to traditional translation. If, on the other hand, one of the languages is minor, there is not as much translated material for the AI service to reference. The raw AI translation falters, the translator has to edit heavily and at times discard the automatically generated result entirely. In such situations, there is little or nothing to be gained by choosing AI translation. The same applies if a certain literary quality is desired, as then the AI features are more of a hindrance than a help to the translator.

The benefits of AI translation are obvious: With the right language combination, the right subject area, the right AI translation service and reasonable expectations regarding the literary level, translation is faster and costs less.

But there are numerous risks, and one must be aware of them when choosing a translation method. AI translation works with text segment by segment – sentence by sentence – although ongoing developments in the field may change this. Today's AI services are unable to recognise any context and cannot ”understand” the text at any level, but they are surprisingly good at imitating understanding. AI-based translation engines are outstandingly good at spelling and grammar, and a raw AI translation can superficially give an impression of perfection. However, because there is no understanding or insight into context, there is no common thread throughout the translation, and terms may be translated differently from one sentence to the next. AI can, as previously mentioned, generate hallucinations, i.e. insert a completely irrelevant statement into a text or cause words to randomly disappear. The linguistically neat surface and flawless grammar make such errors very difficult to spot, and AI translation with post-editing can, in demanding and content-critical texts, be more time-consuming and costly than classic translation.

AI translation requires a large memory capacity and computing power, and is therefore usually performed in the cloud – i.e. in a server hall somewhere.

In the case of AI translation, Språkbolaget uses exclusively AI services that guarantee a very high security standard, which in practice means their server halls are located inside the EU and that they are certified according to the international information security standard ISO 27001:2022. This same standard is applied by many major cloud storage services. It means that each customer's data is processed in a segregated area of the server, which in normal circumstances provides reasonable assurance that no confidential data will go astray. However, for translations requiring a higher level of confidentiality, traditional translation methods apply.

Språkbolaget's role as a language service provider is to provide clients with practical advice on which translation technology they should go for and how a task can be completed in the smartest, fastest and most cost-effective way. Our role is also to act as project manager, i.e. to choose one or more translators and revisers with the right expertise from among our many partners; to define the workflow, manage the work, make sure all parties involved meet their deadlines, and to cover for sickness and unforeseen events.

The translator's task is to deliver a correctly translated text at the defined quality level in accordance with the client's specific instructions and with the consistent application of the client's terminology. Whether it be an annual report or sustainability report, a product brochure or a company website – all documents that represent your public image to your customers – the texts must be of the highest quality and we would thus recommend nothing less than traditional translation by one or more translators with many years' experience. The same applies to critical information in financial, medical or legal contexts. Where it concerns internal information, simple user manuals or spare parts lists, there are no requirements for high literary standards. Instead, time and cost considerations take precedence and here we would recommend AI translation combined with competent post-editing as the first choice.

A professional translator today needs considerably broader knowledge than a few decades ago. To be able to work efficiently with AI translation and post-editing at all, the translator must be able to handle multiple CAT tools, work with databases and term lists, integrate AI services into their CAT tool, and manage all quality control functions. And of course, they must also be fully fledged translators with a perfect command of the target language and expertise in the subject area. It’s easy to find translators if you search online. Knowing what a translator is capable of in practice is an entirely different matter. At Språkbolaget we have the in-house knowledge and know where to find the translators and reviewers who truly know the ropes.

We've been around for a long time and have seen modern translation technology and AI evolve. Because we have the right knowledge and experience, we can quickly assess your needs. We collaborate with a large number of expert translators and reviewers worldwide who are highly proficient in their language combinations and subject areas; they are AI-savvy and possess many years' experience using modern translation technology. Språkbolaget is here to help you identify your needs. We know where the expertise is; let us manage the project and deliver the quality and price level that suits your project. On time. Talk to us about your translation project!