Japan’s national broadcaster NHK has been left red-faced again after AI-generated subtitles on a news programme identified disputed territories in the East China Sea as the Diaoyu Islands.
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Japan controls the uninhabited islets and refers to them as the Senkaku Islands, China claims them as the Diaoyu Islands. This disagreement has sparked a prolonged and contentious sovereignty dispute between the two nations.
The slip-up occurred during an English-language news broadcast on Monday. NHK officials attributed the error to the Google AI-based simultaneous translation system used for the past five years.
In a statement on Wednesday, NHK apologised for the error and announced an immediate suspension of subtitle use.
Many viewers were unsatisfied with the apology, especially since they must pay a monthly fee of 1,100 Japanese yen (US$7.12) for NHK’s basic terrestrial services or 1,950 yen for additional satellite channels.
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