Threads users have drawn attention to the possible use of artificial intelligence technologies in the translation of the book «Encyclopedia of Fairies» by Vivat Publishing House. The company’s technical support denies the use of AI, and notes that the editor’s comment was mistakenly published.
Threads users have drawn attention to the possible use of artificial intelligence technologies in the translation of the book «Encyclopedia of Fairies» by Vivat Publishing House. The company’s technical support denies the use of AI, and notes that the editor’s comment was mistakenly published.
A Threads user with the nickname matilda_brooks wrote about this situation. «Vivat is burning, using AI to translate books», — she noted, referring to the Telegram channel «Knygodurka».
The description of this channel states that it is dedicated to anonymous stories about the Ukrainian book publishing industry. «Everyone is so friendly in criticizing KSD for poor translation, while Vivat uses AI in its translations. By the way, the book „Encyclopedia of Fairies,“ page 181», — says the post by «Knygodurky.»
Threads and Telegram users noticed the sentence: «Here is a formatted excerpt with improved readability and dialogic style.» In their opinion, this is a typical phrase like those used by the ChatGPT chatbot when asked to edit text.
«There’s still something missing: 'Do you want me to make a book cover or write a presentation plan, Marino?'», — noted one of the commentators.
«Making a mistake is normal. Not admitting it and making excuses is cringey. Well, they’re using AI, so what? This is the future of any field,» another noted.
» The Fairy Encyclopedia " is the first book in the Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett. It tells the story of a young professor at Cambridge University who arrives on a remote northern island to study the local fairies (supernatural creatures from Germanic and Celtic mythology). The book was translated into Ukrainian by Diana Myagka.
Vivat’s technical support denied that the phrase on page 181 that attracted the attention of social media users was written by AI. According to company representatives, it is an editor’s comment that was mistakenly published.
«Unfortunately, the phrase that remained in the text is a draft editorial comment that was mistakenly not removed before printing. We very much regret not noticing this at the final stage, and we sincerely apologize to readers for the oversight,» Vivat noted.
The publisher announced that they already have a list of technical corrections that will be made to the next edition. «Such situations are painful but important lessons for us as a publisher, and we are grateful to every attentive reader who pays attention to them,» Vivat assured.
dev.ua has reached out to the publisher for additional comment. We will update the article when we receive a response.
Recall that in May 2024, Russia struck the Kharkiv printing house «Faktor-Druk», which is one of the largest full-cycle printing complexes in Europe. This printing house printed books by the Vivat publishing house.dev.ua collected a selection of the publishing house’s IT books, which are now available on their website. By purchasing these books, you will be able to support the printing house «Faktor-Druk» and the Vivat publishing house.
The publication «Ekonomichna Pravda» reported that a year after the Russian strike, Vivat managed to recover to approximately 30% of its previous capacity. The general director and co-owner of the publishing house Yulia Orlova noted that the publishing house will be able to fully recover in another year.
