DeepSeek to the Rescue
English

DeepSeek to the Rescue

by

language learning
culture
dialogue

Today, I wanted to post a short line on Twitter. Someone had asked which was the last book other users had read about a particular topic, and as I casually happen to be reading a book connected to that topic right now, I was keen to answer—I usually don't fall for such things, since I know people with verified accounts keep dropping saucy or gripping questions and making provocative remarks simply as baits to get more interactions. However, chatting about books and movies and making lists thereof is a weakness of mine—so every now and then I swallow the bait, so to speak.

Hence, I decided to post the cover of the book, adding in French (the original question was in this language) something like "I'm reading this right now". My guess was "En le lisant, maintenant", but as my spoken French is a rather faltering one, I decided to ask DeepSeek. The answer was incredibly swift, as usual (I confess I still don't seem to get used to this AI immediacy). He/she (?) said that my phrasing wasn't technically wrong, but that it didn't sound like fluent, natural French, and proposed "En train de le lire" or "Je le lis en ce moment" instead.

I have to say it wasn't my first interaction with HAL 9000—I mean, DeepSeek and/or ChatGPT—but the device keeps impressing me any time I try it. I cannot help wondering about the social effects of this tool's existence. Perhaps I should ask him/her about this.

However, I keep withstanding the impulse to ask for corrections of longer texts. That's what Journaly is all about, isn't it? I still prefer human interaction, mind you. (Wait, no bots around, huh?)

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