In a relatively quiet manner, Elon Musk’s X has activated a new feature that is causing discomfort for some of its users. This statement—which could easily introduce about fifty articles each year—refers this time to the automatic translation of content that is not in the user’s native language. In principle, this should be well received. However, we are referring to Twitter and Grok.
Thus, we return to the muddy waters of controversy.
Last Tuesday, Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X, announced on his official profile the arrival of automatic content translation on X: “We are implementing worldwide automatic translation to provide global reach for posts in any language on X. The translations are powered by Grok and have substantially improved in recent months. If you would rather read in the original language, you can always disable automatic translation by tapping the gear icon.”
The mechanism is, in fact, quite straightforward. By clicking that icon, you access a panel where you may enable or disable automatic translation from the language in which the tweet was originally written (English, in this case).
In any case, there are multitude of different languages around the world, so if you wish to do more than simply specify how it operates between Spanish and English, you may access a much broader panel within the settings. You would need to follow this path: Settings and Privacy > Accessibility, Display and Languages > Languages
There you will find a wide range of languages to choose from. Those selected will be your preferred languages, so to speak, and will not be translated. If you do not select them, Grok will translate them automatically for you. Next, by pressing the “next” button, you can select your default language. This is the language into which content not originally written in it will be translated.
I would say it is quite intuitive.
Of course, Grok is not infallible (it is far from it), X has not made a significant announcement regarding this feature, and the very dynamics of this social network lend themselves to controversy, so there have already been users who have voiced complaints about encountering unexpected translations, or simply because the translations provided by Grok are not as accurate as they would expect.
Frankly, I believe this is a worthwhile feature—certainly one that could be improved—but an excellent development for a network where millions of people express their opinions in languages other than their own. At a time when encountering diverse and different perspectives (at least regarding their origin) can help us better comprehend the world around us, it is particularly useful.
And as Nikita Bier pointed out, if you do not like the translation you see, you can always revert to the original language.
Image: Gemini
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Δ