BRIDGING CULTURES IN THE DIGITAL AGE, HUMAN-AI COLLABORATION IN LITERARY TRANSLATION PAPER

Abstract

This article explores the roles, strengths, and limitations of human translators and AI-based tools when handling literary texts and culturally rich content. Human translators tend to excel at preserving meaning accuracy, natural flow, and cultural sensitivity, especially with idioms, metaphors, and subtle implications. On the flip side, AI tools like Google Translate or Neural Machine Translation deliver impressive speed, efficiency, and consistency—particularly for straightforward or formal texts—but they often stumble over intricate cultural nuances. Using a qualitative descriptive and comparative approach, this study evaluates translation outputs from humans and AI based on accuracy, acceptability, and readability. The findings highlight that top-quality results come from using AI as a support tool followed by thorough human post-editing. Ultimately, the paper argues for human-machine collaborative models and tech-focused translator training to boost translation quality in our digital world.