In the past, I went to great lengths to improve translations with large language models, trying various methods. Initially, I used literal translation followed by paraphrasing, then upgraded to literal translation, reflection, and paraphrasing. While the results improved, the process became increasingly complex.

As models get smarter, I started to think there's no need for such complicated steps. Instead, I wanted to "return to simplicity" and find a more straightforward, efficient prompting approach.

I noticed that translations sometimes feel stiff because the task itself is framed as "translation." When the model is asked to "translate," it sticks closely to the literal meaning, trying to preserve the original format and structure, which often leads to rigid and awkward results.

This reminds me of learning English in school. When the teacher asked us to translate English into Chinese, we'd usually follow the English words and sentence structures closely. But if the teacher said "rewrite in Chinese" instead of "translate," it felt much freer—we could grasp the English meaning and express it naturally in Chinese, often with better results.

So, recently, I tried asking large language models not to "translate" rigidly but to "rewrite" in the target language. The difference was clear! The output was no longer constrained by the source grammar, becoming more natural and fluent.

For example, in yesterday's OpenAI "Stargate" announcement, the last sentence was:

“We want to connect with firms across the built data center infrastructure landscape, from power and land to construction to equipment, and everything in between.”

A literal "translation" might be: "We hope to connect with companies across the entire data center infrastructure field, from power and land to construction and equipment, and everything in between."

But "rewriting in Chinese" sounds much smoother: "We hope to collaborate with companies related to data center infrastructure, covering areas like power, land, construction, equipment, and more."

How to achieve this? The prompt is incredibly simple:

"Please respect the original meaning, maintain the original format, and rewrite the following content in Simplified Chinese:" Or in English: "Please respect the original meaning, maintain the original format, and rewrite the following content in Simplified Chinese:"

The same applies to translating other languages—just change the target language in the prompt!

@Baoyu