AI Translator Award Winner: "Use Like a Dictionary, Not as a First Draft Translation"

Korean Literature Translation Institute "Need to Supplement Newcomer Award System and Discuss AI Collaboration Scope"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo Mideum] It has been reported that a webtoon translated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) technology by a foreigner not proficient in Korean received a translation award from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.

According to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Ms. Matsusue Yukiko, a Japanese national, won the Newcomer Award in the webtoon category of the '2022 Korean Literature Translation Award' organized by the institute last December. The institute assigned the popular domestic webtoon "Mirae-ui Goldongpum" (Future Antiques) as the project, and Ms. Matsusue translated it into Japanese.

[Photo by Korea Literature Translation Institute]

The issue arose when it was revealed that Naver's AI-based translator, 'Papago,' was used during the translation process. The fact that a work translated with the help of AI by a translator not fully proficient in Korean received a major domestic translation award caused a significant controversy.

However, Ms. Matsusue acknowledged using AI assistance but explained that it was only at the level of a dictionary substitute. On the 8th, through the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, she stated, "After reading the entire work from start to finish, I used Papago as a dictionary substitute to achieve more accurate translation. Since the work features a shaman as the main character and contains many unfamiliar terms and concepts, I conducted follow-up research using academic papers to understand the terms and context. Then, I completed the translation by making detailed revisions according to the flow of the work. I have never considered it an AI rough draft translation."

She added, "I am not at a level where I cannot speak Korean at all. I studied Korean for a year ten years ago and was taking Korean classes at the time of submission. The reason I applied for the translation award was that my Korean teacher recommended that I would be capable of translating a webtoon."

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea stated, "We will use this incident as an opportunity to discuss the possibilities and acceptance scope of AI translation and conduct policy discussions regarding the scope of collaboration with AI."

First, regarding the Newcomer Translation Award, to align with the purpose of discovering emerging translators, it will be clearly defined as 'translation done independently without external assistance such as AI,' and the winning works will undergo related verification procedures. The decision on whether to revoke the controversial award has not yet been made.