Translating Latin with Artificial Intelligence
Sylvio R. Bistafa
The major hindrance in the study of earlier scientific literature is the
availability of Latin translations into modern languages. This is particular
true for the works of Euler who authored about 850 manuscripts and wrote a
thousand letters and received back almost two thousand more. The translation of
many of these manuscripts, books and letters have been published in various
sources over the last two centuries, but many more have not yet appeared.
Fortunately, nowadays, the artificial intelligence AI translation can be used
to circumvent the challenges of translating such substantial number of texts.
To validate this tool, benchmark tests have been performed to compare the
performance of two popular AI translating algorithms, namely Google Translate
and ChatGPT. Since it was found that ChatGPT performed better on these tests,
this translating support was then used on an excerpt of a 1739 letter from
Johann Bernoulli to Euler, where he notifies that he was sending to Euler the
first part of his manuscript Hydraulica. The findings highlight ChatGPT as a
valuable translation tool, catering not only to general Latin practitioners but
also proving beneficial for specialized Latin translators.