So, my hot librarian wife (deal with it, volcel gestapo) just informed me that there is, in fact, a legit use for this. There are publishers who effectively "translate" difficult works into simpler English with different targeted reading levels so that works can be enjoyed by people with learning disabilities, accessibility and literacy issues, and ESL readers at different levels of English proficiency. Yeah, the AI component is scummy, and feeding stuff through an LLM without any kind of filter or editorial oversight is probably going to end badly (which, knowing hellworld, is what they're doing), but yeah. There are people out there that tools like this could help, and it's not strictly in the domain of "hurr hurr burger-brained AmeriKKKan$ are illiterate."
Once again, though, I have no hope () that the capitalists would prioritize accessibility over profits, so it's probably absolute dogshit.
I used Shakespeare written “simpler” and “modern” as a supplement while following along the original play version in class which definitely helped me understand what was happening. But this was several years before generative LLM was unveiled and made commercial. This meant that someone or entire teams of people who read the originals made this “edition.” I do not have faith that I would’ve had a correct or even accurate understanding of the events and plot if some bullshit LLM spewed out the “translation.”
What’s worse is translations of philosophy and political texts. I’ve used LLM to explain some difficult concepts from Marx’s works, but I never know which is correct, if at all, because it will literally modify every little interpretation if you say you disagree. Some human translations are already revisionist or disinformation. An LLM made by biased tech bros who hate children (except for ancap behavior) and anything that’s not STEM - I can only assume that they’ll bastardize so much just so the kids can hurry up and learn to code
I was just about to write a comment about exactly this, focusing specifically on language learning.
It's a recurring problem for people learning any language, that the vast majority of content at their own reading level is either for children, or it's their own classroom textbooks of basic conversation and whatnot — and that shit just isn't very engaging for most people. And indeed when you have a lot of engaging content that's at roughly your level of comprehension, you learn a language more quickly. This is actually a reason why a lot of people use anime and manga to learn English as well!
That said, I haven't really heard about simplified editions of books in languages aside from English. I guess because English is the "world language", it just ends up being prioritized for this sort of thing, which is kind of a shame.
But yeah, regardless, this being written by a machine driven by a profit motive spells disaster. I should wish more people just volunteered to write these sorts of translations, especially in languages other than English.
As an ESL student and immigrant, if my school did this I likely would’ve flunked my English classes if they didn’t modify the tests to be the same style. Having my teacher explain (or a student attempt to explain) what’s happening, then breaking down the complex sentence structure and vocabulary was what we did. We might’ve done some rewriting exercises, but that’s completely different than learning the rewritten sentences from the getgo. But I was also a child which means learning languages is usually easier. I can’t say if the same method is useful for adult learners.
AI turns any art run through it into a flavorless paste. This is something that deserves to be done by actual thinking, soul-having human beings who can care about the art and the audience it's being adapted for
I get it, it's like the Simple English version of Wikipedia. I used to use it sometimes for very technical articles where the main wiki article required too much subject knowledge to understand.
So, my hot librarian wife (deal with it, volcel gestapo) just informed me that there is, in fact, a legit use for this. There are publishers who effectively "translate" difficult works into simpler English with different targeted reading levels so that works can be enjoyed by people with learning disabilities, accessibility and literacy issues, and ESL readers at different levels of English proficiency. Yeah, the AI component is scummy, and feeding stuff through an LLM without any kind of filter or editorial oversight is probably going to end badly (which, knowing hellworld, is what they're doing), but yeah. There are people out there that tools like this could help, and it's not strictly in the domain of "hurr hurr burger-brained AmeriKKKan$ are illiterate."
Once again, though, I have no hope (
) that the capitalists would prioritize accessibility over profits, so it's probably absolute dogshit.
deleted by creator
[AI]
Wait, it's all slave labor?
I used Shakespeare written “simpler” and “modern” as a supplement while following along the original play version in class which definitely helped me understand what was happening. But this was several years before generative LLM was unveiled and made commercial. This meant that someone or entire teams of people who read the originals made this “edition.” I do not have faith that I would’ve had a correct or even accurate understanding of the events and plot if some bullshit LLM spewed out the “translation.”
What’s worse is translations of philosophy and political texts. I’ve used LLM to explain some difficult concepts from Marx’s works, but I never know which is correct, if at all, because it will literally modify every little interpretation if you say you disagree. Some human translations are already revisionist or disinformation. An LLM made by biased tech bros who hate children (except for ancap behavior) and anything that’s not STEM - I can only assume that they’ll bastardize so much just so the kids can hurry up and learn to code
Yeah, you could potentially use a llm to base a smaller specialised model for a particular subgenre, but even then it's a first draft at best.
I was just about to write a comment about exactly this, focusing specifically on language learning.
It's a recurring problem for people learning any language, that the vast majority of content at their own reading level is either for children, or it's their own classroom textbooks of basic conversation and whatnot — and that shit just isn't very engaging for most people. And indeed when you have a lot of engaging content that's at roughly your level of comprehension, you learn a language more quickly. This is actually a reason why a lot of people use anime and manga to learn English as well!
That said, I haven't really heard about simplified editions of books in languages aside from English. I guess because English is the "world language", it just ends up being prioritized for this sort of thing, which is kind of a shame.
But yeah, regardless, this being written by a machine driven by a profit motive spells disaster. I should wish more people just volunteered to write these sorts of translations, especially in languages other than English.
As an ESL student and immigrant, if my school did this I likely would’ve flunked my English classes if they didn’t modify the tests to be the same style. Having my teacher explain (or a student attempt to explain) what’s happening, then breaking down the complex sentence structure and vocabulary was what we did. We might’ve done some rewriting exercises, but that’s completely different than learning the rewritten sentences from the getgo. But I was also a child which means learning languages is usually easier. I can’t say if the same method is useful for adult learners.
AI turns any art run through it into a flavorless paste. This is something that deserves to be done by actual thinking, soul-having human beings who can care about the art and the audience it's being adapted for
I get it, it's like the Simple English version of Wikipedia. I used to use it sometimes for very technical articles where the main wiki article required too much subject knowledge to understand.