ChatGPT is one of the most popular and fast growing chatbot applications since its launch in late 2022, where it quickly reached a hundred million users. Its projected income for the year 2023 is $200 million and is expected to reach a billion in the following year. Though these numbers appear impressive, businesses should be cautious when relying on ChatGPT for accurate translations, especially in the business field.
There are various issues businesses may work into when attempting to leverage ChatGPT’s translation abilities. In comparison to other machine translation technologies like Google Translate, ChatGPT does not have an advantage. Even though it is built on a large language model which comprises of data similar to other engines, it can barely perform optimally with low-resource or foreign languages. This is due to the dependence on the internet, when a language is not frequently used online, its translation will be less reliable. Additionally, ChatGPT may produce incorrect results when interpreting industry jargon or slang, as words with multiple meanings produce literal rather than figurative translations.
On top of this, ChatGPT is not yet capable of operating as an accurate real-time translator, which can be highly useful and cost-efficient in a business. It is vulnerable to mistakes due to incorrect spellings, and common slangs and acronyms can be a hindrance to producing a fluid conversation. Furthermore, it is not designed to translate multiple languages in a single text.
A great way to combat these challenges is to utilize other technologies that can help augment the language-based platform of ChatGPT. Establishing glossaries, to help accurately deciphering acronyms, misspellings, slang and industry-specific terms, is one way of avoiding incorrect translations. For example, customizing it to take into account the industry jargon and slang is an essential part of this process.
At the end of the day, leveraging ChatGPT for customer service translations can have its potential drawbacks. It is advisable for businesses, customer service teams, and other users to implement additional technology to supplement the language-based platform of ChatGPT to ensure quality, reliable, and accurate translations.
