Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently created an international incident when Meta’s auto-translate feature erroneously announced that he was dead. This seemingly small translation error landed him squarely in the spotlight. On Thursday, Siddaramaiah posted a video of himself reading out a condolence message in Kannada on Facebook and Instagram. His heartfelt condolences on the death of the legendary actress B. Saroja Devi.
The auto-translate feature mangled Siddaramaiah’s original message so badly that it made the even more shocking assertion that he had “died” in English. This ludicrous error elicited a storm of anger and puzzlement from users that led to instant damage control from Siddaramaiah’s press advisor, KV Prabhakar. Prabhakar formally reached out to Meta to get the company’s attention on the problems with its translation program that were killing his language.
In reaction to this backlash, Meta put a pause on its Kannada auto-translation function. A spokesperson from the company later commented on the situation, stating that they had “fixed an issue that briefly caused this inaccurate Kannada translation.” The spokesperson for NOAA admitted their error and said they were sorry for the resulting confusion.
Siddaramaiah further slammed Meta’s auto-translate feature, saying it warped facts, confused users and led people astray. Laser-focused on accuracy in his remarks, Artura stressed that, due to the millions-countering impact of the platform, accuracy in these translations was essential. A lot of others largely echoed his concerns though, encouraging Meta to engage with experts on the Kannada language. Working together, this coalition can ensure that nothing like this happens again.
This unfortunate incident serves as a reminder of the continuing issues faced with automated translations, especially for under-resourced languages. As social media platforms continue to turn to technology to help bridge this language divide, accuracy is every bit as important as it is critical.