{"id":441998,"date":"2026-01-30T01:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441998\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T01:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T01:31:11","slug":"new-brunswick-government-using-generative-ai-to-translate-internal-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441998\/","title":{"rendered":"New Brunswick government using generative AI to translate internal documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government of New Brunswick is dipping its toes into the world of artificial intelligence with the implementation of a website called ChatGNB that\u2019s available exclusively for government employees.<\/p>\n

While there aren\u2019t many details on exactly how it\u2019s being used, the Department of Finance and Treasury Board, which has been piloting the program for the past year, says it\u2019s mainly being used for translating internal documents.<\/p>\n

And that has some translators concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain ethical considerations here that we should take into account, because translators fear that they may lose jobs, or that their source of income may diminish.\u201d said Sergey Petrov, a certified translator and the president of the Corporation of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of New Brunswick. <\/p>\n

He said many of the corporation’s 110 members are individual contractors, and some may get less work if AI is used in their place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can make your work a lot easier, but at the same time, of course there are some valid concerns,\u201d he said. \u201cConcern for accuracy of translation, and also translators\u2019 jobs may be at risk just as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnSergey Petrov is president of the Corporation of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of New Brunswick, and says he worries about translators losing work as the government adapts to using AI for translation. (Victoria Walton\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Petrov said when it comes to accuracy of translating, context is key.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the proper revision and without what we call localization \u2026 you can’t really achieve the accuracy we want to achieve without that,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause a good translation is first a precise one.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATCH | Translator worries about \u2018accuracy\u2019 of AI translation:\"\"<\/p>\n

How the New Brunswick government is using generative AI for translation<\/p>\n

he government claims the service reduces spending on translators, but at what cost?<\/p>\n

When translating between English and French in Canada\u2019s only officially bilingual province, Petrov said it\u2019s important to protect minority languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s no secret that a lot more content is translated from English to French into French and vice versa,\u201d he said. \u201cOver time, if we use AI a lot for that purpose, we will have a lot more translations produced by AI in French and that may deteriorate, to an extent, the integrity of the French language and the French culture in this bilingual country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will AI use grow?<\/p>\n

The provincial government said ChatGNB was created with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer, and that it\u2019s being used because it\u2019s more private and secure than other AI models out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tool developed was to address the need for meeting privacy and security requirements not previously available from commercial services, while safely exploring benefits from AI,\u201d said a statement from a representative with the Department of Finance.<\/p>\n

The government said it can be used for \u201cidea generation, drafts, explanations, and summaries,\u201d and is being used to make government work \u201cmore efficient\u201d and \u201creduce costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the government said there was no cost to get ChatGNB up and running.<\/p>\n

\"AThe ChatGNB website is powered by Microsoft Azure, and users must log in with a valid GNB email account to be able to access the full website. (Government of N.B.)<\/p>\n

CBC News has determined that Microsoft Azure\u2019s GPT-4 Turbo model is the AI program powering the website.<\/p>\n

According to the website\u2019s source code material, the directives given to those using ChatGNB say, in part, that the AI is \u201ctrained on a diverse dataset\u201d of books, articles and websites available up until April 2023. But that it “does not have knowledge of events or developments that occurred after that date,\u201d and does not have access to the internet.<\/p>\n

The instructions highlight that the program is “not approved for sensitive or personal information\u201c and there is potential for both human and systemic bias, warning users to review translations for accuracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerative AI lacks empathy and understanding of human emotions and situations,\u201d says one line of the site\u2019s Javascript, the website’s programming language.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerative AI models use probability to create responses and may provide believable, but incorrect information,\u201d it goes on to read.<\/p>\n

A ‘red flag’<\/p>\n

Petrov said he doesn\u2019t personally know anyone who\u2019s lost work because of AI. But he thinks it opens the door for AI to be used for more and more tasks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be a human being in charge who can be held responsible for what they produce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Finance said in a statement that documents like collective agreements, contracts, policies and external-facing documents will continue to be translated by Service New Brunswick’s translation services, even as AI develops.<\/p>\n

\"AThe ChatGNB website said it can provide immediate answers 24\/7 in both English and French. (Government of N.B.)<\/p>\n

Petrov said the government also told the corporation representing translators that \u201cemployees are encouraged to review translation for accuracy and formatting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t think that guideline goes far enough, and he said the corporation will be issuing a formal statement suggesting the government require AI translations to be reviewed and corrected by a real human.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis immediately for me is a red flag,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if you want to produce something that’s intended for public use, or that has a serious nature such as legal documents, legally binding documents or technical documentation or commercial documentation without a review, you are set for trouble sooner or later.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government of New Brunswick is dipping its toes into the world of artificial intelligence with the implementation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-441998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}