NHK ends AI multilingual subtitles after geopolitical terminology error
NHK's AI-powered multilingual subtitle service mistranslated "Senkaku Islands" (Okinawa) into Chinese as "Diaoyu Island" (the Chinese name) in a February 10 news broadcast on the Japan-US summit. The broadcaster ended the service on February 12, citing unreliable translation accuracy.
What happened
On February 10, NHK's international broadcast English news about the Japan-US summit was distributed on the internet with Chinese subtitles that partially displayed Okinawa's Senkaku Islands as 釣魚島 (Diaoyu Island, the Chinese name). Staff noticed the error.
The multilingual subtitle service had been using Google's AI automatic translation function since April 2020 to provide subtitles in nine languages including Chinese, Portuguese, and Ukrainian.
Reported impact
NHK announced on February 12 that it was ending the multilingual subtitle service, determining that the translation was unstable and unsuitable for NHK service.
Governance controls
NHK chairman Inaba Nobuo stated the company would accelerate development of NHK's own AI translation and generative AI systems.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.