Translating scientific Latin texts with artificial intelligence: the works of Euler and contemporaries

TL;DR

This paper evaluates AI translation tools for Latin scientific texts, demonstrating that ChatGPT outperforms Google Translate in translating Euler's works and related correspondence, thus aiding historical scientific research.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of AI translation algorithms for Latin scientific texts, highlighting ChatGPT's superior performance in this context.

Findings

ChatGPT outperforms Google Translate in Latin translation tasks.

AI translation tools can effectively assist in translating historical scientific manuscripts.

The study validates AI tools as valuable resources for Latin-to-modern language translation in scientific research.

Abstract

The major hindrance in the study of earlier scientific literature is the availability of Latin translations into modern languages. This is particular true for the works of Euler who authored about 850 manuscripts and wrote a thousand letters and received back almost two thousand more. The translation of many of these manuscripts, books and letters have been published in various sources over the last two centuries, but many more have not yet appeared. Fortunately, nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) translation can be used to circumvent the challenges of translating such substantial number of texts. To validate this tool, benchmark tests have been performed to compare the performance of two popular AI translating algorithms, namely Google Translate and ChatGPT. Additional tests were accomplished in translating an excerpt of a 1739 letter from Johann Bernoulli to Euler, where he announces that he was sending Euler the first part of his manuscript Hydraulica. Overall, the comparative results show that ChatGPT performed better that Google Translate not only in the benchmark tests but also in the translation of this letter, highlighting the superiority of ChatGPT as a translation tool, catering not only to general Latin practitioners but also proving beneficial for specialized Latin translators.