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Just realized open source AI has a massive blind spot after comparing two translation tools | Ethical Frontiers - Thought Shares

avery_ross•5mo ago

Just realized open source AI has a massive blind spot after comparing two translation tools

I was using Google Translate to help with some Spanish documents for work last month, and it got most of it right but kept stumbling on regional slang. So I tried a free open source translation tool called LibreTranslate because I figured the community would have better context. Man, it was way worse - it butchered like 40% of the sentences and turned a simple email into gibberish. The thing is, Google has this massive dataset from billions of real conversations, while the open source one relies on volunteers who just don't have that scale. I still believe in open source for privacy and control, but for accuracy with everyday language, the corporate tools are just miles ahead right now. Has anyone found an open source tool that actually matches Google Translate for something like medical or legal text?

3 comments

3 Comments

gibson.avery5mo ago

Oh hey, one small thing - LibreTranslate actually does use some pretty big datasets, they just don't have the same money or user feedback loop that Google does. The real issue is that Google can tune their models with billions of daily corrections from real users, while open source projects have to rely on smaller training runs and manual fixes. For medical or legal text specifically, you'd honestly be better off with a specialized tool like OPUS-MT or just using Google with a VPN for privacy, since open source general translators just don't have the fine-tuned medical corpus yet.

jade_jenkins5mo ago

And I had a buddy who tried using LibreTranslate for a medical document once (his dad's prescription instructions from a Spanish pharmacy), and yeah, it mangled a dosage amount so badly he almost took the wrong pills. He ended up just driving to a local clinic with a real translator, because apparently even Google with a VPN got the conversion wrong too. So honestly, I think you're spot on about specialized tools being the only safe bet for anything that could actually hurt someone if mistranslated.

the_jennifer5mo ago

specialized tools being the only safe bet" - @jade_jenkins that story is TERRIFYING and you're right, this applies to everything from recipes to directions now.