Please don't
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2025
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Technology
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Amazon is testing an AI tool that automatically translates books into other languages
(www.engadget.com)
"This should be useful" no.
That is… so bad, in so many subtle ways.
I remember when this was called a translator app. Ofc now it's "AI". Same old grifter slop.
This concept works better than you may think.
Last year I built an app to translate books. I did layout detection first, then using the layout, I would programmatically craft thousands of prompts to produce a translation.
It worked. It wasn't perfect, and each translation of a book cost about $5 - $10, but it worked. The main use was for old, even ancient books that no one would care to translate. There is a lot of historical knowledge locked away in books like this.
While it did work, the results weren't perfect and it did need some hand holding. I didn't have time to productize it, so it is one of countless prototypes that show me a concept works.
But you are not Amazon. By this I mean that Amazon is not going to stop at old as-of-yet untranslated books. It will try to monetize it as hard as possible. And the next “Harry Potter” or “Dune” could be machine translated, losing a lot of subtext and dumbing down to the minimum any work of literature.
There are indeed so many ancient texts only available in their original language. So much “medicine” from the renaissance that’s waiting as a hidden jewel. A first rough translation could be a first step towards detecting new elements as of yet hidden. So many positive uses, none that Amazon will pursue.
And absolutely zero "AI" was used.
Apparently people will believe that any app is somehow "intelligent".