This is considered a step forward for authors self-publishing on the kindle Direct Publishing platform.
Currently, kindle Translate can translate books from English to Spanish, as well as from German to English, and the Amazon said it will soon expand to many other languages.
The tool is in limited testing (beta), limited to a select few authors, before being widely released.
Publications translated in kindle Translate will have clear display labels, helping readers identify the origin of the translated version. However, translating books is not simply a replacement for every word but requires sophistication and understanding the context correctly, something that many experts suspect AI can handle. In fact, many major literary works take many years to have a satisfactory translation.
Amazon asserted that every translated version is autonomously assessed for accuracy before publishing, and that the author can preview the content. However, not everyone is capable of checking the quality of translations in other languages. In the context of AI models sometimes still telling stories, a chapter in a book being translated incorrectly or meaninglessly can become a worrying risk.
kindle Translate opens up opportunities for books to reach more global readers, but also raises big questions about quality, honesty and the role of people in translation.
