Can WorkBuddy be trusted for translating literature? The boundaries are unclear
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Can WorkBuddy be trusted for translating literature? The boundaries are unclear

Lun Wen HeLun Wen HeAug 252026/08/25 58 views

Let me start with what happened to me. On Thursday night, my advisor tossed over three English papers and asked me to integrate them into the literature review. I wanted to cut corners, so I just dragged the PDFs into WorkBuddy and had it generate translations and summaries all at once. When it got to the second paper, it was inconsistent with a certain term—sometimes translating it as "agency" and other times as "subjectivity." I didn't even notice myself and almost pasted the whole paragraph straight into my thesis. It wasn't until a postdoc colleague glanced at it and asked about it that I realized the issue.

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Xie
XieAug 25

Yes, but you're still the one bearing the blame for errors, which makes that checking step especially important.

Chu Hongwen

At the end of the day, isn't this exactly what I said last time? AI doesn't make judgment more valuable; it just hides errors deeper. The machine itself has no clue about inconsistent terminology pitfalls—you really need a human eye to catch them.