Meta Apologizes for Faulty Kannada Translations on Facebook and Instagram

Meta apologizes for incorrect Kannada translations on Facebook and Instagram after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah raised concerns. The company resolved the issue, citing a faulty AI-powered machine translation system as the cause. Siddaramaiah urged social media companies to act responsibly and cautioned citizens to be aware of inaccurate translations. The Karnataka government requested Meta to temporarily disable the auto-translation feature for Kannada content.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has issued an apology for incorrect translations of Kannada content on its platforms. The company resolved the issue, citing a faulty AI-powered machine translation system as the cause. The apology comes after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah raised concerns about the inaccuracies, which he argued could distort facts and mislead users, particularly in the context of official communications [1].

Siddaramaiah took to social media to express his displeasure, stating that the auto-translations were "distorting facts and misleading users." He further cautioned that such inaccuracies could harm public understanding and trust [1]. Following the public statement, the CM's media advisor, K.V. Prabhakar, formally wrote to Meta urging immediate corrective measures [1].

In response, Meta apologized for the issue, acknowledging that the machine translation model provided an error. The company stated that it has implemented a fix to ensure greater accuracy and is continuously gathering feedback to improve its technology [2]. However, the company did not address the possibility of temporarily suspending the auto-translation feature for Kannada content, as requested by the Karnataka government [2].

The Karnataka government had also requested Meta to collaborate with qualified Kannada language experts and linguistic professionals to enhance the quality and contextual accuracy of translations between Kannada and English [1]. Experts have highlighted the challenges in training AI models for low-resource languages like Kannada, noting the need for more comprehensive training data [3].

Chandan Gowda, a professor and dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Vidyashilp University, raised concerns about the use of platforms prone to error for official communication. He suggested that the government should take safeguards, such as using images of messages instead of text messages, to avoid the risk of poor translations [3].

References:
[1] https://www.livemint.com/news/karnataka-cm-siddaramaiah-calls-out-mark-zuckerbergs-meta-for-faulty-translation-of-kannada-11752743980417.html
[2] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/meta-apologises-says-ai-constantly-learning-as-karnataka-cm-flags-translation-flaw-on-facebook-101752770204354.html
[3] https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/karnataka-govt-writes-to-meta-on-incorrect-auto-translations/article69823064.ece