Interesting to see this article on today of all days.
A few days ago I started posting videos of myself doing ad-hoc translations of erotic Afghan song lyrics and poetry. [1]
I love the idea that I am able to share a glimpse of this (in my opinion, beautiful) primarily oral poetry that most people would rarely be able to experience just because of a) how niche it is, b) the language barrier, and c) the lack of general interest in translating it (since oral poetry is generally considered less "prestigious" or worthy of study and translation than written traditions).
At the same time, I am grateful that all of this effort that is being put into training "robots" to write X is largely limited to English, and doubly grateful that in my previous life before tech I invested a significant number of years into learning various different languages.
The part of my mind that enjoys reading dystopian cyberpunk fiction thinks that before long there will be a point of no return where lesser-spoken languages become the last refuge in which we can avoid "robot-generated content", and monolingual English speakers are either permanently trapped in loops of robot-generated rage-bait or expend extreme amounts of mental energy trying to discern and filter human content from robot-generated content.
Somehow, this one doesn't surprise me. Much of poetry is amorphous. The line between "deep" and "nonsense" is distinguished only by the mindset of the reader. And, hell, some humans aim for "nonsense."
A few days ago I started posting videos of myself doing ad-hoc translations of erotic Afghan song lyrics and poetry. [1]
I love the idea that I am able to share a glimpse of this (in my opinion, beautiful) primarily oral poetry that most people would rarely be able to experience just because of a) how niche it is, b) the language barrier, and c) the lack of general interest in translating it (since oral poetry is generally considered less "prestigious" or worthy of study and translation than written traditions).
At the same time, I am grateful that all of this effort that is being put into training "robots" to write X is largely limited to English, and doubly grateful that in my previous life before tech I invested a significant number of years into learning various different languages.
The part of my mind that enjoys reading dystopian cyberpunk fiction thinks that before long there will be a point of no return where lesser-spoken languages become the last refuge in which we can avoid "robot-generated content", and monolingual English speakers are either permanently trapped in loops of robot-generated rage-bait or expend extreme amounts of mental energy trying to discern and filter human content from robot-generated content.
[1]: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeez_y/video/7097722732363697450