Respond in Reuters’ Context: “AI's 'insane' translation mistakes endanger US asylum cases”

Sep 18

Respond tells Context about how “insane” machine translation errors are jeopardizing U.S. asylum claims. Names translated as months of the year, incorrect time frames and mixed-up pronouns – the everyday failings of AI-driven translation apps are causing havoc in the U.S. asylum system, with our human translators left to clean up the mess.

One of the collective's translators, Samara Zuza, has been working for three years with a Brazilian asylum seeker whose asylum papers were poorly translated by an AI app while he was in immigration detention in California, she said.

The application was "full of insane mistakes," said Zuza. "The names of the city and state are wrong. The sentences are reversed – and that's the form that was sent to the court."

She thinks it was these inaccuracies that resulted in the rejection of initial attempts to secure the man's release. The man, who asked to be identified only as Carlos, a pseudonym, was eventually released in May 2020 after the two started working together.

"The language was the worst aspect for me," Carlos, 49, said of his six months in immigration detention after he fled gang activity in Brazil.

We are a tiny, under-resourced grassroots organization raising awareness about these issues and driving news coverage. We URGENTLY need support to continue responding to abuses like these all while providing dignified wages to the translators cleaning up the mess.