@krans That's a real and legitimate grievance, but it's a different argument from the one we were having.

Your employer using LLM translation to cut costs on documentation for a massive Korean customer (while having the resources to do it properly) is a decision made by someone with power, to save money, at the expense of Korean users. That's worth being angry about.

But I'm an individual trying to participate in a public conversation. I can't hire a personal interpreter every time I want to respond to a post. The choice I actually face is: use available tools, or stay silent. Those aren't the same situation, and the same tool can mean very different things depending on who's holding it and why.

If anything, your example reinforces the point. The problem isn't the tool, but it's who gets to decide when it's “good enough.”

@hongminhee @krans "good enough" is one of those phrases that always hits me as problematic.

Sometimes you can get away with cable ties and tape. Other times you'll need a weld. "Good enough" is the former to me.

@hongminhee @krans in addition to this, an interpreter who is a real human could judge their employer and be a safety threat if their employer asks them to translate eg. lgbtq-related contents, especially in a socially conservative country like China

@hongminhee @krans would the personal tool exist without the cost-cutting market? To make a (very stereotyped) analogy w/ transportation, if someone says "people should ride bikes" a common response is "what about the disabled?". Standard reply is "well of course they can drive, everyone else should bike/transit". But if there is no whole-population market for cars, will any get built for the disabled? What will they cost?

(auto-translation follows, and I translated back to check)