面对ChatGPT的挑战:呼唤文学翻译中的伦理转向

Confronting the Challenge of ChatGPT: Call for an Ethical Turn in Literary Translation

在目前所有饱受热议的话题中,ChatGPT可能是最受关注的一个。有人可能会提出这样的问题:ChatGPT到底是什么?它对我们的工作和生活意味着什么?这是否意味着一切迟早都会被ChatGPT或AI所取代?如果这是真的,那么我们人类应该如何应对这种情况呢?人类的伦理道德是否仍然有效和必要?以上都是我们面临的问题。本文试图从伦理学的角度来回答这些问题。它侧重于文学翻译和理论翻译。在本文作者看来,一般的写作无疑可由人工智能完成,甚至包括一般的翻译。但对于文学创作和翻译,人工智能不一定能够胜任。优秀的译者只能相对忠实地表达其理论的基本要义,但对其微妙而有争议的深层含义则无法用另一种语言准确地再现。因此,作者呼吁在当前的文学翻译中出现一种“伦理转向”,这样可以恰如其分地评价人工翻译者的工作和角色,避免从一个极端走向另一个极端。

Among all the topics being heatedly discussed at present, ChatGPT is perhaps the very topic that continues to grow in popularity. One might raise these questions: What exactly is ChatGPT? What does it mean for our work and lives? Does it mean that everything will sooner or later be replaced by ChatGPT or AI? If that should be true, what shall we human beings do toward this situation? Will human ethics still be effective and necessary? All the above are issues confronting us. The present article attempts to respond to them and tries to reply to some of the questions from an ethical perspective. It focuses on literary and theoretical translation. To the present author, ordinary writing will no doubt be done by AI, including translation. But for literary creation and translation, AI will not necessarily be able to do satisfactory jobs. Good translators can only render the basic meaning of their theories in a relatively faithful way, but their subtle and controversial deeper meanings cannot be accurately reproduced in another language. The author, therefore, calls for a sort of “ethical turn” in current literary translation, for it will adequately evaluate human translators' job and role, avoiding the tendency of going from one extreme to the other.