Our Method
Machines are quick. Meaning takes a person.
AI the Classics brings out-of-copyright texts into living English through a deliberate, human-in-the-loop process. Artificial intelligence does the tireless first labor; a human translator does the deciding. The result aims to be both readable and honest about how it was made.
The process, step by step
Source in the public domain
We begin only with source texts that have entered the public domain. Each edition is identified, dated, and recorded so the provenance of every translation is transparent and verifiable.
Literal & grammatical drafts
A language model produces two machine layers: a strict word-for-word translation that preserves the original order and lexis, and a grammatical translation that resolves the syntax into ordinary sentences. Together they expose exactly what the text says before anyone smooths it.
Settling the smooth reading
Weighing the literal and grammatical drafts, we settle on a smooth English translation — and, where they exist, we consult earlier public-domain translations of the same text, comparing their choices rather than inheriting them. This is where the translation is actually decided.
Apparatus & notes
Contested words and turning points are written down as translator's notes and glossary rulings. Nothing is hidden: where the text is uncertain, we say so, and we show our reasoning.
What we hold to
The human decides
The model drafts; a person is accountable for every published line. We do not ship unreviewed machine output.
Show the seams
Translation is interpretation. Our notes make the choices legible rather than pretending a single 'correct' text fell from the sky.
Free to carry away
The source texts are in the public domain; our editions are new work, released under CC BY 4.0. You are free to read, copy, quote, adapt, and republish them, including commercially — we ask only that you carry the credit and the link.
Start with our first translation.
Karl Abraham's Giovanni Segantini: An Essay in Psychoanalysis(1911) — rendered into English, with the translator's reasoning visible in the margins.
Read Segantini