Post #2721323

A few years back I set myself the challenge of learning enough Old English to have a go at translating Beowulf. I started my attempt at a translation back in January, and am about a third of the way through the first draft. I had particular aims for this, specifically to do a colloquial translation with a focus on readability. Anyway I really depressed myself tonight by giving the free version of ChatGPT the first 20 lines or so and asking it to do a translation in a colloquial and readable style, and in less than 30 seconds it had honestly done a better job of it than me.. I really wish I could say it was terrible slop, but what's so upsetting is that it isn't. I'm pretty convinced that if I removed the tells from its and my versions (e.g. removed the em dashes it uses, ensured mine is free of typos etc.) a human reader wouldn't be able to guess which was which.