S&S-owned publisher plans ‘limited experiment’ using AI for English translations

In the Netherlands, the country’s largest book publisher—Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK), which was acquired by Simon & Schuster earlier this year—has confirmed it plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to translate some of its books into English, reports the Bookseller.

A spokesperson for VBK told the Bookseller the company was working on ‘a limited experiment with some Dutch authors’, for their books to be translated into English, and said there would be ‘one editing phase, and authors have been asked to give permission for this’.

‘We are not creating books with AI; it all starts and ends with human action,’ said the spokesperson.

The Bookseller said it understood the AI translations would occur ‘only in cases where the English rights have not been sold’, and reported the concerns of Ian Giles, chair of the Translators Association at the UK Society of Authors (SoA). Said Giles: ‘If authors wouldn’t let AI write their own work, do they wish it to be translated by AI? AI models are pattern-spotting machines, converting inputs to and outputs from numbers, and prioritising fluency over all else in the end product. If this publisher feels the need to consult human translators or editors to adjust the output, they are recognising the flaws in this approach. A low-quality translation, even following post-editing, will misrepresent or at worst negatively affect the author’s original work unbeknownst to them.’

The Bookseller said S&S declined to comment on whether VBK’s AI translation trial had any wider implications for its parent business or if it planned to expand the trial further into Europe.

Category: International news