Colloquium cum ChatGPT

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 9:00:34 AM6/9/23

to

Translate into Latin. Today is sunny. The sky is azure, the temperature
high, and I feel happy.

ChatGPT
Hodie est serenum. Caelum caeruleum est, temperatura alta, et felicem me
sentio.

Translate into Latin. Beethoven was a musical genius, as were Mozart and
Bach.

ChatGPT
Beethoven fuit genius musicalis, ut et Mozart et Bach.

Translate into Latin. Cicero didn't know the difference between nuclear
fusion and nuclear fission. Nor did he know about the dilemma between
classical physics and quantum theory.

ChatGPT
Cicero non noverat differentiam inter fusionem nuclearem et fissuram
nuclearem. Nec sciebat de dilemmate inter physicam classicam et theoriam
quantam.

*********

Now, that is exponentially better than Google translate. In fact it's
rather scarily good, quite apart from the extremely humanistic tenor and
demeanour of the interface.

Ed

Desidarius

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 10:19:04 AM6/9/23

to

Do you have access to "Google Bard" from the UK? Here, in France, we
don't. If so, you should make a comparison between their "Latin
translation" ability

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 1:22:39 PM6/9/23

to

Nos velim Latine colloqui. Potestne fieri?
ChatGPT
Certe! Possumus Latine colloqui. Quid tibi utilis est?
User
Quo die mortuus est Julius Caesar?
ChatGPT
Julius Caesar mortuus est in Idibus Martiis, anno 44 a.C.n.
User
Quis meam insulam Britanniam superavit?
ChatGPT
Julius Caesar Britanniam superavit in annis 55 et 54 a.C.n., tamen non
aedificavit coloniam duraturam. Primum verum conatum ad permanentem
occupationem fecit Claudius Caesar in anno 43 a.C.n., cum Romanus
exercitus Britanniam ingressus est et multas partis insulae sub
Romanorum imperio adduxit.

**************

Very impressive; quite close to perfect. I detect one or two minor
deficiencies;

"utilis".
"in Idibus Martiis" and other dates.
"a.C.n" seems to cover both "BC" and "AD".

Ed

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 1:29:41 PM6/9/23

to

Google Bard

Nos velim Latine colloqui. Potestne fieri?

I am an LLM trained to respond in a subset of languages at this time, so
I can't assist you with that. Please refer to the Bard Help Center for
the current list of supported languages.

*************

Well, well. Google not yet totally world-dominant. (:
Who blocks it in France?

Ed

Desidarius

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 2:07:35 PM6/9/23

to

Yes and OpenAI is a Microsoft's child. (from financial point of view)

> Who blocks it in France?

Nobody but as with Latin, the French language does not seem to be an
immediate concern. On the other hand, it is also impossible to use
"Bard" in English from France. Blank page.

> Ed

henh...@gmail.com

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 4:28:30 PM6/9/23

to

is that ChatGPT 3.5 ?

What 's your interface (for using it)? Do you have a (Premium) subscription?

Do you get a better result than the following?

_______________________________
Translate this into French: [ In their house, everything comes in pairs. There’s his car and her car, his towels and her towels, and his library and hers. ]

AI (ChatGPT 3.5)

Dans leur maison, tout vient en paires. Il y a sa voiture et sa voiture à elle, ses serviettes et ses serviettes à elle, et sa bibliothèque et la sienne.

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 9, 2023, 4:54:04 PM6/9/23

to

Free add-on for Firefox.
ChatGPT May 24 Version

La cigale ayant chanté
Tout l’été,
Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue :
Pas un seul petit morceau
De mouche ou de vermisseau.
Elle alla crier famine
Chez la fourmi sa voisine,
La priant de lui prêter
Quelque grain pour subsister
Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle.

Cicada cantando
Per totum aestatem,
Valde inopem se sentiebat
Cum venit aquilo:
Nulla parva particula
Muscae vel vermiculus.
Ad famem clamavit
Apud formicam vicinam suam,
Ut sibi commodaret
Quamdam granum ad subsistendum
Usque ad tempus novum.

Please note that Latin word order and syntax may differ from modern
languages. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!

*************

Not bad, in my humble opinion. Certainly the best I've ever seen.

Ed

Btraven

unread,

Jun 26, 2023, 5:31:40 PM6/26/23

to

In re:

> >> Translate into Latin. Cicero didn't know the difference between nuclear
> >> fusion and nuclear fission. Nor did he know about the dilemma between
> >> classical physics and quantum theory.
> >>
> >> ChatGPT
> >> Cicero non noverat differentiam inter fusionem nuclearem et fissuram
> >> nuclearem. Nec sciebat de dilemmate inter physicam classicam et theoriam
> >> quantam.

Here is our discussion of 'quanticus a um' 'quantalis -e' from many years ago:

https://alt.language.latin.narkive.com/j3gufv6X/nova-fabula-romanica-latina-idgenus-quod-magiae-verisimile-dicunt

Is it possible for users to teach Latin directly to the chatbot or to address the developers?
Soccorsi uses 2 forms in different contexts 'quantica' and 'quantistica' but never 'quantalis' (Berard)

b.t.raven

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 27, 2023, 3:59:32 AM6/27/23

to

Btraven wrote:

>
> In re:
>>>> Translate into Latin. Cicero didn't know the difference between nuclear
>>>> fusion and nuclear fission. Nor did he know about the dilemma between
>>>> classical physics and quantum theory.
>>>>
>>>> ChatGPT
>>>> Cicero non noverat differentiam inter fusionem nuclearem et fissuram
>>>> nuclearem. Nec sciebat de dilemmate inter physicam classicam et theoriam
>>>> quantam.
>
> Here is our discussion of 'quanticus a um' 'quantalis -e' from many years ago:
>
> https://alt.language.latin.narkive.com/j3gufv6X/nova-fabula-romanica-latina-idgenus-quod-magiae-verisimile-dicunt
>
> Is it possible for users to teach Latin directly to the chatbot or to address the developers?
> Soccorsi uses 2 forms in different contexts 'quantica' and 'quantistica' but never 'quantalis' (Berard)
>
> b.t.raven

ChatGPT with its OpenAI core is a revolutionary new form of bot. It
doesn't work in the traditional, heuristic way.
I thought I'd try again with the same question I asked previously.
Here's the dialogue;

Ed

******
User

Translate into Latin. Cicero didn't know the difference between nuclear
fusion and nuclear fission. Nor did he know about the dilemma between
classical physics and quantum theory.
ChatGPT

Cicero differentiam inter fusionem nuclearem et fissiomen nuclearem
ignorabat. Nec de dilemmate inter physicam classicam et theorema
quantale sciebat.
User
Could one say "theorema quanticum"?
ChatGPT
Yes, one could indeed say "theorema quanticum" to refer to "quantum
theory" in Latin. The term "theorema quanticum" is a valid translation
for "quantum theory."

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 29, 2023, 1:46:27 PM6/29/23

to

Less than perfect, with occasional gobbledegook.

User
Is this good Latin? Meum nomen est Eduardus. Habito islam Britanniam.

ChatGPT
There are a couple of issues with the Latin sentences you provided:

"Meum nomen est Eduardus" is grammatically correct and translates
to "My name is Edward." However, it's worth noting that Latin does not
typically use the possessive pronoun "meum" (my) when stating one's
name. Instead, it is more common to simply say "Nomen meum est Eduardus"
(without the possessive pronoun).

"Habito islam Britanniam" is not grammatically correct. It seems
that you intended to say "I live in Great Britain." The verb "habito"
means "I dwell" or "I inhabit," but it is not commonly used to express
the meaning of "living" in a specific country. Additionally, "islam"
should be "in," which means "in" or "within." A more appropriate
translation would be "Habito in Britannia" or "Vivo in Britannia" to
express "I live in Great Britain."

So, a corrected version of the sentences would be:

"Nomen meum est Eduardus." - My name is Edward.
"Vivo in Britannia." - I live in Great Britain.

Please note that Latin can have multiple correct translations based on
context, so it's always helpful to provide the specific meaning or
context you're aiming to convey.

User
How would you say in Latin? I'm called Edward and I live in Britain.

ChatGPT

In Latin, you can say "I'm called Edward" as "Edwardus vocor" and "I
live in Britain" as "in Britannia habito" or "Britanniae habito." Here
are the complete sentences:

Edwardus vocor et in Britannia habito.
Edwardus vocor et Britanniae habito.

Both translations are grammatically correct and convey the intended meaning.

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 29, 2023, 2:23:06 PM6/29/23

to

This bot has perfected the human interface. Nobody could deny that it
passes the Turing Test with full honours. But in doing that, they've had
to encroach on human ignorance, human arrogance, human egotism. And so
the occasional idiocy; such are homines sapientes, aut potius homines
minore sapientia quam superbia.

Ed

Ed Cryer

unread,

Jun 29, 2023, 3:42:25 PM6/29/23

to

This is what's so scary about this bot. Truth takes second place to
acceptance. It's one of us in appearance; or, at least, one of the "walk
the talk" type. Not educated, not moral; but having enough leadership
qualities to fool the hoi polloi.
"Man the barricades . Allons enfants de la patrie. Britains never, never
shall be slaves.
You want nationalism? This kid can spew it forth.

Put this mouth-piece behind a counter of M&S and it could sign up
hundreds per hour.

Ed

Btraven

unread,

Jul 1, 2023, 2:40:23 PM7/1/23

to

Btraven

unread,

Jul 3, 2023, 1:40:53 PM7/3/23

to

It looks like Chatty is even scraping this forum. Apparently I taught it the word 'quantalis' in the post where I asked if we could teach the bot.
Unfortunately she is not to be trusted on her grammar or her reasoning. For example, the locative is used for islands the size of Melita but not Britannia.

b.t. raven