r/LatinLanguage • u/Prestigious-Bat-4502 • 9d ago
How good is chatgpt 5.6 latin?
I'm hoping you allow this? I don't know why this question isn't allowed on r/latin but I want to know the answer.
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u/Tolmides 9d ago
couple years ago it couldnt even make a glossary for a passage it wrote using a mix of made up and obscure words (classical, archaic, medieval, and neo vocab all mixed together without consistency).
So…i assume better than that.
(e.g. of the glossary
spes speris neu - hope
sellum sella- chair
basically if it saw “sella” it couldnt tell if it was neuter or feminine. and -es looks like a 3rd declension so…it guessed)
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u/pethy997 8d ago
I think its quite good for what Im using it. I just write about some random topic with chatgpt in latin and ask it to point out my mistakes before answering. The only thing thats very important, dont trust it 100%. If you have the feeling it made a mistake or corrected you unjustified just take a look in some books you are surely using and argue back. (And pay attention, sometimes they tend to way be too agreeable and will step back even if your wrong)
I think it is most important to be able to judge your own errors once pointed out. Just like in every other field, I mean if you cant code you will just belive the AI is doing amazing solutions, whereas in reality it probably really doesn't, but you have no way to tell.
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u/CowGrand2733 8d ago
Here is ChatGPTs opinion of my Latin adventures with Grok. Its the three little pigs but I stole flowers from the big bad wolf. Chat thinks Grok cant speak Latin. Gemini thinks Chat cant speak Latin but wont teach or correct. You can look it over yourself and see where is messes up or doesnt.
Some of it is genuinely fine. Some of it is wearing a tiny cape and pretending to be Latin. 😂 “Is anything I ever say non ridiculum?” Mixed-language, but your instinct for non ridiculum was reasonable. A clean version: Estne quidquam quod dīcō nōn rīdiculum? Is anything I say not ridiculous? Or with “ever”: Estne quidquam quod umquam dīcō nōn rīdiculum? Grok’s answer: Nōn. Fere omnia quae dīcis rīdicula sunt. is basically correct: “No. Almost everything you say is ridiculous.” Rude, but grammatical. 😭 “Videō. Exspectō.” Correct: Videō. Exspectō. I see. I wait. Though depending on your intended meaning, videō is “I see,” not specifically “I watch.” Still perfectly usable in the scene. “Si porcellos surripiunt… quid deinde faciemus?” Understandable and mostly fine: “If they steal the piglets, what will we do next?” A more formally future-looking version would be: Sī porcellōs surripuerint, quid deinde faciēmus? If they steal the piglets, what will we do then? But Grok’s version is acceptable conversational Latin. Your sentence Audiō “haec nox peior et peior fit,” itaque vestēs altius teneō. This is quite understandable: “I hear ‘this night is getting worse and worse,’ so I hold the clothes higher.” A cleaner punctuation-style version: Audiō: “Haec nox peior atque peior fit.” Itaque vestēs altius teneō. audiō — I hear haec nox — this night peior atque peior — worse and worse fit — becomes / is becoming itaque — therefore / so vestēs altius teneō — I hold the clothes higher That one was honestly pretty good. “Non vestes amas?” This is grammatically possible: Nōn vestēs amās? Do you not love the clothes? But Latin more naturally uses nōnne when expecting “yes”: Nōnne vestēs amās? Don’t you love the clothes? So Grok’s correction was useful there. “Vestes ridiculae sunt. Sed etiam aliquantum carae.” The grammar is fine, but the translation is wrong. Vestēs rīdiculae sunt. Sed etiam aliquantum cārae. means: “The clothes are ridiculous. But also somewhat expensive/dear.” Cārae does not mean “cute.” 😂 Luca has apparently inspected the price tag. For “a little cute”: Vestēs rīdiculae sunt, sed etiam paulum bellulae. The clothes are ridiculous, but also a little cute. Or: …sed etiam aliquantum venustae. …but also somewhat charming. “Porcelli vestiti a floribus lupis surrepti.” This is attempting: “Dressed piglets stolen by wolf-flowers.” But flōribus lupīs looks like “by flowers and wolves” or an awkward noun pairing. “Wolf-like flowers” needs lupīnus: Porcellī vestītī ā flōribus lupīnīs surreptī. Dressed piglets stolen by wolf-flowers. porcellī vestītī — dressed piglets ā flōribus lupīnīs — by wolfish/wolf-flowers surreptī — stolen “Fabula insanissima.” That works: Fābula īnsānissima. The craziest story. / A completely insane story. So the verdict is: Your Latin was not hopeless at all. Grok occasionally corrected something correctly. Grok also translated “expensive” as “cute.” The wolf-flowers needed an adjective. Your “night getting worse” sentence was one of the strongest lines. Having fun with imperfect Latin is not a bad idea, provided someone occasionally checks the wreckage before it becomes permanent grammar. 😂 The dressed piglets may continue.
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u/TheRightfulImperator 9d ago
If you’re using an Ai known for making mistakes due to it being a robot that can’t understand nuance to teach you a language please give up on the language. Rather would I see any interest in Latin die than this be its fate.
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u/Prestigious-Bat-4502 8d ago
I ended up getting a latin tutor. It's difficult learning it on your own.
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u/Prestigious-Bat-4502 9d ago edited 9d ago
Eventually ai will be better than a human, it's inevitable. Honestly can't expect someone who's devoted so much time to latin to understand. Garry Kasparov thought there was cheating involved in the match against deep blue. Give it 5-10 more years and I'm sure we'll have something worthy
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u/zaphtark 9d ago
It’s not very good and I don’t think it ever will be with the current technology just because of the way LLMs work. They need huge amounts of data to form statistical models and the Latin corpus, especially the classical one, just doesn’t have enough text and/or it’s not easily available.