Lost in Translation Artificial Intelligence | Edge

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Imagine minding your business aboard a high-speed train hurtling at 186 miles per hour through northern Italy. You know you’re nearing the end of a two-hour trip from Florence Santa Maria Novella to Venice Santa Lucia station, but the timer you set on your smartwatch has 25 minutes remaining. Suddenly, your family is in a tizzy. We’re about to miss our stop! We have to get down now!

Amid the commotion, there’s a lone Chinese grandmother tugging at your jacket, half shouting questions in Mandarin, while an overhead announcement announces the name of the station in Italian. In front of you, your mother-in-law keeps pressing the button for the open door. The door won’t open. Your father-in-law and sister-in-law are stuck on the platform, looking out the window as the train starts to pull out of the station. Chinese grandma starts to really panic.

The family is divided. Half of us got off at the wrong station, although it’s not clear which one. None of us knew where we were or how long it would be until the next stop.

This is not hypothetical. This is how I spent a Saturday two weeks ago. It’s the same kind of anxiety-inducing situations that make people hesitant to explore countries where they don’t speak the language. When I moved to Tokyo alone in 2006, before modern smartphones, before Google Translate was even remotely reliable, I cried countless times trying to do mundane things like rent an apartment or order pizza. My main resources were a 17-pound laptop and a Nintendo DS with a dictionary cartridge.

In 2025, I have no shortage of AI-powered instant translation tools and apps that promise to make a family vacation to Italy and Switzerland a breeze.

I downloaded the Google Translate and Apple Translate apps on my phone. I’ve also packed two standalone AI translation machines: Pocket talk and Time Kettle T1. The Pocketalk and TimeKettle are portable translators with cellular connections and cameras. It works well offline, and can translate signals in photos, freeing up your phone to do other things.

I thought for sure they would come in handy in case it was necessary.

I’m sorry to report that AI-powered translation tools are no match for my in-laws’ open-mindedness and firm belief that everyone in Europe speaks English. (To be fair, they were right 95 percent of the time.) On countless occasions, my spunky mother-in-law had already walked up to someone in her Southern drawl and gotten an answer before I could even pull out my phone. Likewise, there’s no point in using a translation tool when a bombastic Pompeii taxi driver is telling jokes in English About three generations of his family’s business. The AI ​​was also useless at haggling the fare when your father-in-law has already paid the taxi driver, shaking his hand as if he had just made a deal behind the scenes.

The main problem is that each of these devices requires time, patience, and ideally, a strong internet connection. You need to download language pairs beforehand to ensure offline capability. You should have enough to explain to your conversation partner what the device is, how it works, and pray that there are no time restrictions. You have to hope that the person you asked for help is willing to come to you if the device or internet connection goes wrong. And most importantly, You She can’t be too tense.

We were late for the train from Milan to Switzerland. My mother-in-law had all the tickets on her phone, but she had already gone through the turnstiles, leaving the rest of us behind. Panicked, she took a screenshot of three of the four remaining tickets and texted them to us. She was so confused that she couldn’t send the fourth one. The three of us rushed through. My wife was left stranded on the other side. A confused station agent tried to help while my husband repeatedly tried to scan an already used ticket. My mother-in-law also tried to explain. Much shouting in Italian and English ensued.

I froze as I tried to think of which device would be most useful. By the time I settled on Google Translate, my exhausted wife exclaimed loudly: “Fuuuuuuuuck!!!!!!“

Which It does not require any translation. The Milanese shot us intense glances, gasping as they passed. The station agent raised his hands and let the stupid American pass by hand.

At least we got to the train.

Even when everything is going well, translation technology can still leave you a bit lost.

Before touring Pompeii, my sister-in-law bought a bottle of mineral water. While trying to read the food label, she asked if soccer It was calories. Since it’s mineral water and the amount was listed in milligrams, I guessed calcium. However, I decided to test my entire translation arsenal. Both applications are defined soccer Like “football” – which is true but false in this context. The Pocketalk camera function was correct, but by the time it finished, my mother-in-law had already asked the tour guide and loudly announced that it meant calcium. There was no time to pull T1.

Pocketalk and T1 were sometimes helpful in translating menu items. Just take a photo, wait a minute or two, and then you get an English image superimposed over the original Italian text. However, it won’t help you much if you try to translate an entire list at once. The translation text will be crammed together in a small image. ChatGPT was a bit more useful, provided you were patient enough to wait. In a Swiss café, it took ChatGPT three minutes to translate five pages of a drinks menu. I ignored all coffee options, and only skimmed alcoholic drinks.

Here too, it’s generally quicker and easier to swallow your pride and ask the waiter.

Which brings me back to the train to Venice Santa Lucia.

About 90 minutes before the chaos, after my family had settled into our seats but before boarding the train, the Chinese grandmother next to my sister-in-law started poking her. After a few minutes, they beat me. Grandma was trying to use a Chinese translation app, but she assumed my sister-in-law was Italian. Nothing my sister-in-law said could convince her otherwise.

this It was the perfect opportunity for Pocketalk or T1 to shine. Except I was anticipating that I would only need Italian and German on this trip. I didn’t download Chinese on either device, and the Wi-Fi on the train was spotty. In the middle of downloading, both devices died because I forgot to charge them the night before. Apple translation also Need me to download Chinese language. Finally, Google Translate helped me tell this grandma that we were Americans, that I didn’t speak Chinese, and then I turned around Ha Application to English.

It was embarrassing. She would whisper into her phone, wait a few seconds, then hold it out for me to read. The AI ​​translation was decent. She said she was afraid to miss her stop. She was going to Venice Santa Lucia. Were we going to the same station? If so, can she get off the train with us?

I talked on my phone. We are going to the same station. I’ll let you know when it’s time to come down. I have no idea how good the translations are. I didn’t even know if I was right in choosing simplified Mandarin over traditional. However, she shook my hand and understood that it meant “thank you.”

An hour later, she pulled me by the sleeve again and gave me her phone. The translation app said her phone was dying, did I have a battery she could borrow? I gave it a USB-C cable, but it froze. So I smiled, patted her hand, and extended my palm. She gave me her phone. I plugged in the cord, pointed to the port, plugged it in, and gave her a thumbs up. The relief on her face was as universal as the way she held my hand and smiled.

When our train pulled out, our family was split in half, and common sense began to show. Venice Santa Lucia was the last stop. None of the other passengers woke up when my family woke up. Our train was 20 minutes late. Before the chaos began, I vaguely remembered my father-in-law saying, “It’s 12:34!” Our original arrival time. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

I pulled up Google Maps. We were in Padua. You have selected public transportation directions to Venice Santa Lucia. We were two stops away and 25 minutes away. It was easy to pass this on to my wife and mother-in-law. In the group chat, I told our stranded family that the next train would arrive in 15 minutes. Then, I took my grandmother’s hand, brought her back to our seats, plugged in her phone, and took out mine. She seemed nervous until she read my translated version of what happened. We shared a laugh.

Now that I’m back home, I’d say my phone’s high-speed international data plan was the most useful piece of technology on my trip. However, it was convenient to have these tools as a backup in case of emergencies. I’ll find them most convenient when I’m traveling solo, living abroad for a short time, or if I need to go to the hospital or police station.

on this The only time I felt like AI translations saved the day was on the chaotic train ride to Venice. Not to help myself or my family. I achieved this with common sense and the Internet. Instead, translation technology helped me calm a frightened stranger. It’s not a lot, but I’m grateful nonetheless.

However, no AI translator could help me put into words the real reason why I was helping her. All I can say is that Grandma looked like my mother. If she was alone and afraid in Italy, I would want a stranger to help her too. Before we parted on the sidewalk, I wanted to tell her that I hoped her stay in Venice would be everything she dreamed it would be.

I accepted with an exaggerated smile, an enthusiastic wave, and allowed her to steal my USB-C cable.

Photography by Victoria Song/The Verge