Presented on November 22, 2025, at the Limassol International Book Fair, this ThinkPub translation slam places work produced by artificial-intelligence tools alongside translations created by professional literary translators.
Emily Diamandopoulou and Despina Pirketti compare extracts from fiction and nonfiction, inviting the audience to examine how humans and machines approach meaning, style, terminology and cultural context. The exercise turns translation into a visible process rather than presenting it only as a finished text.
Machine translation can offer speed, consistency and a useful preliminary version. Literary passages, however, expose its difficulties with ambiguity, rhythm, humour, voice and culturally specific meaning. Human translators can recognise these layers and make interpretive choices according to the purpose and readership of a work.
The comparison treats AI as a practical subject for evaluation rather than an abstract threat or automatic solution. It demonstrates why technological efficiency must be combined with linguistic expertise, editorial judgement and transparent human responsibility.
Original Greek title: Άνθρωποι και μηχανές: Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη και μεταφραστές σε έναν διαγωνισμό μετάφρασης
