Carlos de Paula top Portuguese AI translation editor

  By Carlos de Paula   I could not dream this up,   even considering I have great imagination. It just happened recently.   I was recently editing a translation for a client, which was done by AI. It was a long petition, which was translated from English into Spanish, concerning litigation, and it needed to be turned around fast to be filed in a South American country.     The translation was mostly not bad.   Among other things, the middle of the text mentioned a fair number of accounts and trusts, which were individually identified by short names. One of them as the “ML Account”, reference to a major Wall Street firm. I was terrified when I found out that software had translated “ML Account” as “ Cuenta de Lavado de Dinero ”. In other words, Money Laundering Account .   This would certainly not sit well with any judge in any country...Mind you, this was not done a single time. It was done several times!!!   In my exper...

  I have been exposed to machine translation from the very beginning, so in the 90s I had already tried computer software in a few language pairs. To tell you the truth, they were all very bad back then.   However, time flies when you are having fun, and it does the same when you are not. With time translation software has become better, I must admit. However, most AI translations still sound like AI text, devoid of style and life, incapable of understanding figures of speech, cynicism, irony, humor, nuances, and the proverbial text between the lines.   However, I knew that sooner or later it would be widely adopted as a tool, so in the last couple of decades I continued to study several software titles in myriad languages.   As it stands, AI produced translation still has a major problem: it reads context very poorly. That, in certain languages, can have disastrous consequences, for the same word can have different meanings in the same language, for inst...

Internet presence is a necessity these days, if you want to evolve in your professional and personal life. Millions of people aspire to live a life of fame, luxury and little work by becoming influencers, trusting coaches and handlers galore that promise Instagram fortune to anyone, regardless of age, body type, beauty, speech issues, lack of intelligence, culture or talent, or offering no content with any redeeming social value. Although some people that do not fit the mold young-beautiful-woman who is willing to appear almost naked actually make it, one may say there is the inclusive narrative behind this. The powers that be (Mr. algo, Silicon Valley, celebs, coaches, PR people, the press) like to portray Instagram as a place anyone can become an instant success, so they make famous 90-year old ladies, dysfunctional folks, ugly people, unfunny comedians, untalented singers and actors, to give the semblance of a level playing field.  Do not be fooled. The people that make it are e...