How Good Is AI Translation? Lessons from My NLP Book in German & Spanish

My NLP book was translated into German and Spanish using AI (DeepL). Here’s what worked, what didn’t, and why AI translation is still a win.

It’s an uncanny feeling to see your own words transformed by the very technology you’ve spent years writing about.

That’s exactly what happened when my publisher, O’Reilly decided to release Spanish and German translations of my NLP book (originally published in 2020, before the current LLM wave). Instead of the traditional human translation route, they partnered with DeepL, one of the leading AI translation companies.

Auto-translating technical content is no small feat. With my improved German skills, I decided to compare the original and the translated versions. Here’s what stood out:

• 𝐈𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐮𝐩 - The tone, the style; it all comes through without feeling like a robot spat it out (well, mostly).

• 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 - The translation doesn't mess with technical terms like 𝙱𝙴𝚁𝚃 or 𝚂𝚘𝚏𝚝𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚎–𝚃𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐–𝚂𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖. Imagine trying to explain 𝙱𝙴𝚁𝚃 in a translated acronym - no thanks!

• 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 - complex sentences with technical terms.

  For instance, in English:

  "For example, a lot of customer support is now automated through the use of a software ticketing system or even an automated chatbot"

  DeepL’s German version: "Zum Biespiel ist ein Großteil des Kundensupports heute durch den Einsatz eines Software-Ticketing-Systems oder sogar eines automatisierten Chatbots automatisiert"

  Correct, but clunky. A smoother version would be: "Zum Biespiel wird heute ein Großteil des Kundensupports automatisiert, sei es durch ein Software-Ticketing-System oder sogar einen Chatbot"

  My co-authors as native german speakers might have even better suggestions!

• 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐦 - The book has English-language Amazon reviews as examples. DeepL translated those too. So a review like

  "Good Decaf …. it has a good flavour for a decaf :)"

  becomes:

  "Guter Entkof feinierter … er hat einem guten Geschmack für einen Entkoffeinierten :)"

  While technically correct, this might not be how a German speaker would express themselves in a product review. Maybe we should focus on the narrative parts only and not the analysis when translating.

𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞:

AI translation isn’t perfect; it misses nuance and natural phrasing, especially in cultural or narrative contexts. But it does a solid job with technical content and terminology.

Honestly, if even one extra reader benefits from accessing the book in their own language, that’s a win in my eyes.