亚马逊推出Kindle Translate! AI翻译助电子书出海

Amazon announced on Thursday the launch of Kindle Translate, an AI-powered translation service designed for authors using Kindle Direct Publishing to broaden their reach. The service initially translates text between English and Spanish and from German to English, as it’s still operating in beta. More languages will be supported over time.

11月6日，亚马逊宣布推出Kindle Translate，这是一项基于人工智能的翻译服务，旨在帮助Kindle Direct Publishing（KDP）平台的图书作者拓展海外市场。由于尚处于测试阶段，当前仅支持英语与西班牙语互译，以及德语译成英语，后续将陆续支持更多语言。

图片来源：techcrunch官网

The retail giant noted less than 5% of titles on Amazon are available in more than one language, suggesting there’s a big opportunity for AI translations.

亚马逊指出，其平台上只有不到5%的图书拥有多语言版本，这意味着AI翻译存在巨大机遇。

Of course, AI isn’t perfect, which means it could introduce errors into the text. To address this, Amazon allows authors to preview their translations before publishing if desired. If the author is not using the service to simply speed up translating their work into another language they speak, this ability to check the AI’s work won’t do them much good; they’d still need a human translator to review the AI output if they wanted to ensure the best accuracy.

当然，AI并非万能，翻译的文本中可能出现误译或语义偏差。为此，亚马逊允许作者在发布前预览翻译内容。如果作者使用该服务并非单纯为了加速将图书翻译成惯用的另一种语言，那么该预览功能似乎没有太大用；若想确保翻译的准确性，他们仍需请人工译者进行审校把关。

(Amazon claims its AI translations are “automatically evaluated for accuracy” before publication, but it doesn’t detail what steps are involved with this part of the process.)

（亚马逊声称AI翻译在发布前会经过“自动准确性评估”，但并未详细说明评估过程中的具体环节。）

The company says authors can manage and access their translations from the Kindle Direct Publishing portal, where they can choose the languages, set prices, and publish their translated work. Within a few days, authors can publish fully formatted translations of their books.

亚马逊表示，作者可以从KDP门户管理及查看译文，在此选择语言、设定价格并发布译作。在几天内，作者就可以发布格式完整的图书译本。

Readers, meanwhile, will see AI-translated works clearly labeled as “Kindle Translate” titles and will be able to preview samples of the translation.

与此同时，读者将明确看到标注“Kindle Translate”的AI翻译作品，还可预览翻译样本。

Kindle Translate competes with many other AI-powered translation services and tools on the market, whose pricing can vary and which offer broader support for more languages. There are also open source tools. Some people in the industry criticize the use of AI in this way, saying that human translators are better at capturing nuance — particularly in fiction and other literary works. But AI is improving on this front and will likely continue to get better over time.

Kindle Translate与市场上众多其他AI翻译服务和工具存在竞争，这些工具定价机制各异，且支持更多语言。此外，还有开源工具可供选择。业内部分人士批评这种AI翻译，认为人工译者更擅长捕捉细微差别——尤其是在小说和其他文学作品中。但AI翻译技术正不断改进，未来有望持续优化。

图片来源：amazon官网

At present, Kindle’s translation service is being offered to independent authors for free. A tester Roxanne St. Claire said: “For decades, indie authors have been unable to find a cost-effective and trustworthy solution to foreign language translation. With services like Kindle Translate, we are able to easily bring our stories to a wide international audience—a win for authors and readers!”

目前，Kindle 翻译服务免费向独立作者开放。测试者罗克珊·圣克莱尔（ Roxanne St. Claire）说：“几十年来，独立作者一直难以找到一种既经济高效又可靠的翻译解决方案。有了Kindle Translate这样的服务，我们能够轻松地将我们的故事带给更广泛的国际读者——这对作者和读者来说都是双赢！”

Fellow tester Kristen Painter added, “Foreign translations open doors to new readers around the world and give my titles a second life. It’s one of the smartest ways to expand both reach and revenue.”

另一位测试者克里斯汀·佩恩特（Kristen Painter）说：“翻译作品为全球的读者打开了大门，也让我的作品重获新生。这是扩大受众和增加收入的绝佳方式之一。”

Amazon says translations are eligible to be enrolled in other programs, like KDP Select, and are included in its Kindle Unlimited subscription service.

亚马逊表示，翻译作品可加入KDP Select计划，并纳入其Kindle Unlimited订阅服务。