A Day with Translation event on 17 March 2026

Within the 21^th A Day with Translation event, which took place on 17 March 2026, Katharina Schmidt and Marek Gajda conducted a workshop entitled AI – A Good Servant, But a Bad Master? The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Process of Translation (DE-CZ, CZ-DE), Demonstrated on Selected Literary Texts. Firstly, the participants were familiarized with some standard definitions and functions of AI in translation. Next, a practical part followed, in which everyone tried to translate two excerpts from works by Karel Čapek and Karen Duve, respectively, from Czech to German and vice versa, using an AI machine translation tool of their own choice. Finally, a discussion about the results ensued, comprising a comparison with the “official,” i.e. published, translation of the works in question. As a result, the (un)reliability of AI machine translation was evaluated, including the broader implications for professional human translators.

We would like to thank our colleagues for the insightful workshop.

Updated: 02. 04. 2026