California plans to enlist AI to translate healthcare information

In Spanish, there are at least a dozen ways to say someone has the flu -- depending on the country. Translating "cardiac arrest" into Spanish is also tricky because "arresto" means getting detained by the police. Likewise, "intoxicado" means you have food poisoning, not that you're drunk. The examples of how translation could go awry in any language are endless: Words take on new meanings, idioms come and go, and communities adopt slang and dialects for everyday life. Human translators work hard to keep up with the changes, but California plans to soon entrust that responsibility to technology. State health policy officials want to harness emerging artificial intelligence technology to translate a broad swath of documents and websites related to "health and social services information, programs, benefits and services," according to state records.