Literotica policy on using AI for translation from non-English languages

[debaucher]

I have written a few stories, all of which are in my native language. My English is okay but I don't consider it good enough for literary writing. AI tools are great at generating results that align with the source while at the same time flows more naturally in English.

If I use some generative AI tool to translate one of them and post it, would it be okay?

 

[Djmac1031]

No.

Next question?

 

[TheLobster]

Translation, especially of literary fiction, isn’t some simple 1:1 mathematical function which you could relegate to an automaton that works off of word adjacencies and frequencies (which is what LLMs are). It’s creative work comparable to writing itself.

My English is okay but I don't consider it good enough for literary writing.

Improve it then. Don’t worry about your current skill level and try to write anyway. You’ll get better over time. If I could do it, then so can you!

 

[OddLove]

I've seen at least a dozen people posting in Authors' Hangout specifically complaining about their stories being rejected for AI due to using AI for translation purposes.

 

[MrPixel]

AI tools are great at generating results that align with the source while at the same time flows more naturally in English.

That's your opinion, but not the reality. AI-generated text is AI-generated text, regardless whether it is "original" English prose or translated from another language. The AI filters the site uses will detect it as AI and reject it.

 

[SandraMaus]

I've seen at least a dozen people posting in Authors' Hangout specifically complaining about their stories being rejected for AI due to using AI for translation purposes.

This is pure ignorance. Did we learn how to talk over night? AI translation tools are not perfect. They need to learn and improve the same way we did when we learned another language. Instead of rejecting the stories why not posting them so people can work together on a correct translation and feeding it back to the AI tool.

 

[onehitwanda]

This is pure ignorance. Did we learn how to talk over night? AI translation tools are not perfect. They need to learn and improve the same way we did when we learned another language. Instead of rejecting the stories why not posting them so people can work together on a correct translation and feeding it back to the AI tool.

Because this is not what the owners of the site wish their site to be used for.

 

[SandraMaus]

Because this is not what the owners of the site wish their site to be used for.

But they don't own the internet. And this isn't the only site for erotic stories. Maybe a Thread for alternative sites or a list comparing erotic stories sites might change the owners attitude

 

[OddLove]

But they don't own the internet. And this isn't the only site for erotic stories. Maybe a Thread for alternative sites or a list comparing erotic stories sites might change the owners attitude

The owners of this website don't want AI written stories on their website. And until there's a reliable way to distinguish between stories Translated by AI and stories Written by AI, it makes sense to reject all stories where AI tools have appeared to be used.

It's unfortunate for those who don't speak English and can't afford a human translator. But hopefully there's a breakthrough at some point that will easily be able to distinguish between AI Translations and AI Writing.

 

[onehitwanda]

Maybe a Thread for alternative sites or a list comparing erotic stories sites might change the owners attitude

I'll let you scold that iceberg from the bow of the RMS Titanic.

 

[Bamagan]

I have written a few stories, all of which are in my native language. My English is okay but I don't consider it good enough for literary writing. AI tools are great at generating results that align with the source while at the same time flows more naturally in English.

If I use some generative AI tool to translate one of them and post it, would it be okay?

If your understanding of English is good enough that you can evaluate the quality of the machine translation, then your English is good enough that you don't actually need the translator. AI is perhaps better at translating than trying to write something on its own, but it's still probably going to get caught as machine writing and rejected, and it's definitely against the site's current policies to host such content.

 

[Omenainen]

I have written a few stories, all of which are in my native language. My English is okay but I don't consider it good enough for literary writing. AI tools are great at generating results that align with the source while at the same time flows more naturally in English.

Based on this forum post, you’re easily good enough to write your stories in English. In my experience, translating is a whole another skill from writing, and it’s easier to write the story in the target language than it is to translate something existing. I write differently in my language compared to English.

If I use some generative AI tool to translate one of them and post it, would it be okay?

No, and all the energy you pour into it is wasted. Whereas learning to write English better yourself is a valuable skill to have.

 

[Omenainen]

But they don't own the internet. And this isn't the only site for erotic stories.

You can go host your AI training camp in one of those sites then.

Maybe a Thread for alternative sites or a list comparing erotic stories sites might change the owners attitude

You mean you’d like them to host a thread like that on their forum? Why would they, though?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Hey Awk, bar open?

@AwkwardMD

 

[ElectricBlue]

But they don't own the internet. And this isn't the only site for erotic stories. Maybe a Thread for alternative sites or a list comparing erotic stories sites might change the owners attitude

Literotica is the largest erotic writing site on the internet, by a very wide margin; and it's site policy not to promote other sites.

In any event, why would the site encourage such a thread, when their policy is, no AI?

 

[debaucher]

Thank you all, I got my answer. No AI. Cool.

 

[StillStunned]

As someone who edits professionally, and has had to edit more than a few AI translations, I can tell you that you're better off without it. The translations look alright at a glance, but when you read them closely you'll find that they're really poor. They're inconsistent, they don't flow, sometimes they're just inaccurate, they get confused by homonyms, and sometimes the reference material contains details that get added in because AI isn't really intelligent.

 

[Djmac1031]

Thank you all, I got my answer. No AI. Cool.

Why not just publish in your native language? Im sure those who speak/ read it would be appreciative

 

[Bramblethorn]

so people can work together on a correct translation and feeding it back to the AI tool.

How would that even work?

 

[iwatchus]

Why not just publish in your native language? Im sure those who speak/ read it would be appreciative

Is there a problem with publishing both versions? I would not expect so. You might get some advice on better translations from people fluent in both.

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is pure ignorance. Did we learn how to talk over night? AI translation tools are not perfect. They need to learn and improve the same way we did when we learned another language. Instead of rejecting the stories why not posting them so people can work together on a correct translation and feeding it back to the AI tool.

The objective of the site is not to improve Gen AI. Gen AI has already stolen most of the Internet and most written works without the approval of copyright owners. This is a site which celebrates human sexuality (mostly at least) and human creativity. Not the statistical regurgitation of least common denominator text based on purloined data.

Translation is arguably a separate case, but if I wanted to write a novel in French, I’d get proficient in French. My professional experience of machine translated contractual documents is that relying on them will not help you, they get too many things wrong when each clause can be important.

I recently read The Extinction Of Irena Rey, written by a translator and a story about a group of translators and their author. The artifice is even that the novel (written by an American lady) is translated from a Spanish one written by one of the other translators. It gives you an immense sense of the skill and love that human translators put into their work.

 

[alexandra_secret]

If your understanding of English is good enough that you can evaluate the quality of the machine translation, then your English is good enough that you don't actually need the translator.

I'm sorry but I totally disagree with that. I write in French and I bother to translate to English, but translating is not as fun (to me) as writing and although I can chat in English, I can't produce something satisfying for a written story. Words don't come to me as easily, and my vocabulary is much more limited than in French.
Some other person said that foreign writers "just" have to improve on English, and I also disagree with that. I came here to write stories, not to become an expert in English language.

So yes I've been using AI to help me translate my stories, at the beginning I had some rejections but if you read and correct what the AI gave you, for me it's fine. I use AI to enrich the vocabulary and to give me ideas on expressions to use. When it suggests something I'm not used to, I will dismiss it. That's why I consider that my translation is still mine (it still takes a lot of time, but much less than doing the translation entirely on my own).

Now I totally understand that stories written by AI are not allowed here, even in its own category. But a story that I have successfully published here, it should be allowed that I (and nobody else unless given authorization) publish its translation. Ideally, it should be linked to the original text, eventually with a tag or some indication to let the reader know that AI has been used for the translation.

tl;dr: it's fine to use AI to translate a text, as long as you check and fix the result.

 

[TheLobster]

Some other person said that foreign writers "just" have to improve on English, and I also disagree with that. I came here to write stories, not to become an expert in English language.

You don't have to be an expert; I certainly am not, and I'd argue most of the native English writers are far from any sort of definitive expertise as well.

However, if you do want to write stories that move the hearts, minds and loins of your readers, you have to develop this deeper neural links which connects the sensation of written words in a foreign language to your emotional circuits. There is no substitute for this, and LLM-powered translation certainly isn't one.

Acquiring this kind of skill, if you can call it such, doesn't really involve any systematic study either, not beyond the language basics. All you have to do is read, read, read -- everything, here on Lit and elsewhere, smut or otherwise.

 

[StillStunned]

tl;dr: it's fine to use AI to translate a text, as long as you check and fix the result.

No, it's not. The process is the same as if you use AI to edit your story. The AI chooses the words.

Why do people keep saying that they understand not being allowed to use AI to write a story, but it's OK to use it for translation? Do they think that the plot and characters are all that matter in writing, not the words?

If that were so, we'd all be publishing outlines and summaries, or Save the Cat story beats. But it isn't: a story is about how you tell that plot, how you describe those characters, what words you give them to say. Otherwise we'd just provide cross-references to lists of story types and character archetypes.

As soon as you let AI do any of the work for you - whether through prompts, by editing or by translating - you're not telling the story anymore. You're taking the stolen words of thousands of writers - real writers - organised according to statistics.

If you want to do that, and if you're OK with the ethical and environmental question marks, go ahead. But this site won't allow it, and I for one won't consider you a writer.

 

[alexandra_secret]

No, it's not. The process is the same as if you use AI to edit your story. The AI chooses the words.

Please read the long version of what I have written and you'll see I don't disagree with you

I use AI to get different suggestions on parts of a text, and I will eventually (not always) use the one that feel closest to what I had written originally.
I do NOT copy-paste my text to AI just to make a quick translation. It takes me days to make sure that the translation feels acceptable. Whenever I use AI, it's me who decides the words that appear in the translation, not the AI.

The amount of work I put into this makes the final text my own work.