NHK terminates AI translation service after disputed island names in Chinese subtitles
NHK's multilingual subtitle service, powered by Google's AI translation system, generated Chinese subtitles using Chinese names for disputed islands during a February 10 broadcast about Japan-U.S. summit talks. NHK terminated the service following the error, citing instability in translations.
What happened
During NHK's February 10 English international broadcast about Japan-U.S. summit talks and China's reaction, Chinese-language subtitles generated by Google's AI translation system displayed the Senkaku Islands using the Chinese name 'Diaoyu Islands.' The subtitles stated 'Diaoyu Islands in Okinawa Prefecture' and 'Japan controls the Diaoyu Islands.'
NHK terminated its multilingual subtitling service on February 10, which had provided automatic real-time translation of English subtitles into nine languages including Chinese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese since 2020.
Reported impact
NHK President Nobuo Inaba stated that 'unstable translations' had become apparent and that the service was 'not an appropriate service for NHK.'
Index analysis
The AI system appears to have generated geopolitically sensitive text by substituting a territorial claim's name without distinction from the Japanese name used in the original broadcast.
Governance controls
NHK announced plans to 'urgently develop NHK's own AI translation system' in response to the incident.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.