‘Can make mistakes’. Prompting ChatGPT to Enhance Literary MT output

Gys-Walt Egdom, Christophe Declercq, Onno Kosters


Abstract
Operating at the intersection of generative AI (artificial intelligence), machine transla-tion (MT), and literary translation, this paper examines to what extent prompt-driven post-editing (PE) can enhance the quality of ma-chine-translated literary texts. We assess how different types of instruction influence PE performance, particularly focusing on lit-erary nuances and author-specific styles. Situated within posthumanist translation theory, which often challenges traditional notions of human intervention in translation processes, the study explores the practical implementation of generative AI in multilin-gual workflows. While the findings suggest that prompted PE can improve translation output to some extent, its effectiveness var-ies, especially in literary contexts. This highlights the need for a critical review of prompt engineering approaches and empha-sizes the importance of further research to navigate the complexities of integrating AI into creative translation workflows effective-ly.
Anthology ID:
2024.ctt-1.2
Volume:
Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Creative-text Translation and Technology
Month:
June
Year:
2024
Address:
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Editors:
Bram Vanroy, Marie-Aude Lefer, Lieve Macken, Paola Ruffo
Venues:
CTT | WS
SIG:
Publisher:
European Association for Machine Translation
Note:
Pages:
10–20
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.ctt-1.2
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Gys-Walt Egdom, Christophe Declercq, and Onno Kosters. 2024. ‘Can make mistakes’. Prompting ChatGPT to Enhance Literary MT output. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Creative-text Translation and Technology, pages 10–20, Sheffield, United Kingdom. European Association for Machine Translation.
Cite (Informal):
‘Can make mistakes’. Prompting ChatGPT to Enhance Literary MT output (Egdom et al., CTT-WS 2024)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.ctt-1.2.pdf