I think if the English original is considered good, there should be nothing wrong with a translation. So make sure you translate good texts. (If you are writing your own text, write English version first and ask for feedback.)
Also, get ready for disappointment if it turns out that the overlap between “can meaningfully debate AI safety” and “has problems reading English” turns out to be very small, possibly zero.
To give you a similar example, I have translated the LW Sequences to Slovak language, some people shared it on social networks, and the ultimate result was… nothing. The handful of Slovak people who came to at least one LW meetup all found the rationalist community on internet, and didn’t read my translation.
This is not an argument against translating per se. I had much greater success at localizing software. It’s just, when the target audience is very smart people, then… smart people usually know they should learn English. (A possible exception could be writing for smart kids.)
Not to be dissuading, but probably a lot of people who can do relevant work know English pretty well anyway? Speaking from experience, I guess, most students knew English well enough and consumed English content when i was in university. Especially the most productive ones. So, this still can be interesting project, but not like, very important and/or worth your time.
Even people who know English pretty well might prefer to consume information in their native language, particularly when they aren’t in a task-oriented frame of mind and do not consider themselves to be engaged in work, which I’m guessing is when people are most receptive to learning more about AI safety.
I want to create a new content about AI Safety for Russian speakers. I was warned about possible backlash if I do it wrong.
What are the actual examples when bad oversimplified communication harmed the case it agitated for? Whose mistakes can I learn from?
I think if the English original is considered good, there should be nothing wrong with a translation. So make sure you translate good texts. (If you are writing your own text, write English version first and ask for feedback.)
Also, get ready for disappointment if it turns out that the overlap between “can meaningfully debate AI safety” and “has problems reading English” turns out to be very small, possibly zero.
To give you a similar example, I have translated the LW Sequences to Slovak language, some people shared it on social networks, and the ultimate result was… nothing. The handful of Slovak people who came to at least one LW meetup all found the rationalist community on internet, and didn’t read my translation.
This is not an argument against translating per se. I had much greater success at localizing software. It’s just, when the target audience is very smart people, then… smart people usually know they should learn English. (A possible exception could be writing for smart kids.)
The OP probably already knows this, but HPMOR has already been translated into Russian.
Not to be dissuading, but probably a lot of people who can do relevant work know English pretty well anyway? Speaking from experience, I guess, most students knew English well enough and consumed English content when i was in university. Especially the most productive ones. So, this still can be interesting project, but not like, very important and/or worth your time.
Even people who know English pretty well might prefer to consume information in their native language, particularly when they aren’t in a task-oriented frame of mind and do not consider themselves to be engaged in work, which I’m guessing is when people are most receptive to learning more about AI safety.