The government of New Brunswick is venturing into artificial intelligence with the launch of ChatGNB, a site restricted to government employees. The initiative, piloted by the Department of Finance and Treasury Board for the past year, primarily serves to translate internal documents, though details on its broader applications remain sparse.
This move has raised concerns among translators in the province. Sergey Petrov, president of the Corporation of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of New Brunswick, expressed apprehension regarding job security, saying many of the corporation’s 110 members are individual contractors who could see reduced work if AI tools like ChatGNB are increasingly used. “It can make your work a lot easier, but at the same time, of course there are some valid concerns,” Petrov noted. “Concern for accuracy of translation, and also translators’ jobs may be at risk just as well.”
Petrov emphasized the importance of context in translation, stating, “Without the proper revision and without what we call localization … you can’t really achieve the accuracy we want to achieve without that. Because a good translation is first a precise one.”
While the New Brunswick government asserts that ChatGNB will reduce spending on translation services, the implications for the integrity of the French language in Canada’s only officially bilingual province are concerning to some. Petrov remarked that the imbalance in content translation between English and French could lead to a deterioration of the French language and culture. “It’s no secret that a lot more content is translated from English to French into French and vice versa,” he said. “Over time, if we use AI a lot for that purpose, we will have a lot more translations produced by AI in French.”
The provincial government has stated that ChatGNB was developed with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer to meet privacy and security standards that commercial services cannot provide. “The tool developed was to address the need for meeting privacy and security requirements not previously available from commercial services, while safely exploring benefits from AI,” a representative from the Department of Finance explained.
The platform is designed for various tasks, including “idea generation, drafts, explanations, and summaries,” with the goal of enhancing government efficiency and reducing costs. According to the government, there was no initial cost associated with the implementation of ChatGNB.
Powered by Microsoft Azure, the AI is based on the GPT-4 Turbo model. Users must log in with a valid Government of New Brunswick email to access its features. The site’s source code indicates that ChatGNB is trained on a diverse dataset of books, articles, and websites available up until April 2023, but it lacks knowledge of events or developments occurring after that date. Importantly, the site warns that the AI is “not approved for sensitive or personal information” and acknowledges potential human and systemic bias, urging users to verify translation accuracy.
Petrov acknowledges that while he does not personally know anyone who has lost work due to AI, he believes this technology opens the door for an increasing number of tasks to be automated. “There should be a human being in charge who can be held responsible for what they produce,” he cautioned.
Despite the government’s assurances, Petrov is not convinced that guidelines for using AI translations go far enough. He plans for the corporation to issue a formal statement advocating for a mandatory human review of AI-generated translations, particularly for critical documents. “This immediately for me is a red flag,” he said. “Because if you want to produce something that’s intended for public use, or that has a serious nature such as legal documents, legally binding documents or technical documentation or commercial documentation without a review, you are set for trouble sooner or later.”
Though the Department of Finance maintains that essential documents like collective agreements and contracts will continue to be translated by Service New Brunswick’s professional translators, the future of AI in government operations remains a topic of significant discussion, especially regarding its impact on job security and the quality of translations.
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