This has fascinated me for years. I'll just re-link this comment of mine from a few years ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37544019#37548278.
This was about Amazon products rather than government documentation, but the point is the same. I'll just quote the relevant part:
> The people who make these products have to spend millions and millions of dollars setting up factories, hiring people, putting things into production, etc. But somehow they don't have a budget for a bilingual college student intern to translate a bunch of copy to English better than "using this product will bring a great joy." Why?
> I will make a super strong claim: ChatGPT can now do nearly perfect mass translations of this stuff for free, in theory simultaneously increasing translation quality and reducing costs. Despite this, for whatever reason, I predict that the average translation quality on Amazon won't improve within the next few years.
My super strong claim has so far been correct. Just go on Amazon.com and click just about anything. For instance, here's a random blanket: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MR4FSPT
"OPTIMUM GIFT: All people can use this flannel fleece blanket in Coach、Office、Bed、Study, etc. Reversible softness offers all seasons warmth.
INTIMATE SERVICE: If you have any questions, please contact us. it is our pleasure to serve you."
How does a human being in this situation somehow invent the phrase "OPTIMUM GIFT?" "Optimum" is a fairly advanced English word. Maybe you'd expect, I dunno, "GREAT GIFT" or "BEST GIFT"? And "INTIMATE SERVICE?"
And once again, we now have magic English-speaking computers that can do this all for us - for free - and China has unanimously decided "nah, screw that. We'd rather go with INTIMATE SERVICE."
This was about Amazon products rather than government documentation, but the point is the same. I'll just quote the relevant part:
> The people who make these products have to spend millions and millions of dollars setting up factories, hiring people, putting things into production, etc. But somehow they don't have a budget for a bilingual college student intern to translate a bunch of copy to English better than "using this product will bring a great joy." Why?
> I will make a super strong claim: ChatGPT can now do nearly perfect mass translations of this stuff for free, in theory simultaneously increasing translation quality and reducing costs. Despite this, for whatever reason, I predict that the average translation quality on Amazon won't improve within the next few years.
My super strong claim has so far been correct. Just go on Amazon.com and click just about anything. For instance, here's a random blanket: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MR4FSPT
"OPTIMUM GIFT: All people can use this flannel fleece blanket in Coach、Office、Bed、Study, etc. Reversible softness offers all seasons warmth. INTIMATE SERVICE: If you have any questions, please contact us. it is our pleasure to serve you."
How does a human being in this situation somehow invent the phrase "OPTIMUM GIFT?" "Optimum" is a fairly advanced English word. Maybe you'd expect, I dunno, "GREAT GIFT" or "BEST GIFT"? And "INTIMATE SERVICE?"
And once again, we now have magic English-speaking computers that can do this all for us - for free - and China has unanimously decided "nah, screw that. We'd rather go with INTIMATE SERVICE."