Warning: That AI translation tool cost me a 5-figure contract in Tokyo last November

I used DeepL for a Japanese client's proposal instead of a human translator and they flagged 3 cultural phrases wrong, then ghosted me after 2 years of work so has anyone else had an AI mess up something critical with a non-English speaker?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_leo4d ago

Wow I read a study that said AI misses 40% of cultural context in East Asian business translations.

daniel_gonzalez4d ago

3 specific cultural phrases in Japanese - honorific keigo levels, a local idiom about nemawashi, and the way they reference group consensus instead of individual opinions. My friend who actually lives in Osaka caught all 3 when I showed him and was like yeah no wonder they bailed.

kaigibson4d ago

Knew a guy who used machine translation for a contract in Korea and it translated a polite refusal as a hard yes. Client was not amused.