Teresa Kok Claims Her Controversial Halal Statement was Mistranslated by ChatGPT from Mandarin to Malay

Earlier this month, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok came under fire for some remarks she had made in regards to halal certifications, leading to many calling her out. However, she later said that her remarks were taken out of context.

Now, the MP is stating that the controversy surrounding her statement was due to some wonky ChatGPT translations.

Speaking to Utusan Malaysia: Mingguan Malaysia, Teresa explained that her statement was originally made in Mandarin and was translated to Bahasa Melayu (BM) via ChatGPT, which led to her statement going awry.

“My original statement is actually in Mandarin and I instructed my Malay employees, who speak and write fluently in Mandarin, to translate it into Malay. However, because my employees were in a hurry to go abroad to carry out their duties, the statement was translated using the ChatGPT language model variant because it is faster,”

“However, there are certain words in the translation that had ‘run away’ from the original meaning and my party was careless with the words used. The problem is when there are news portals that write headlines that are shocking and in poor taste. Meanwhile, what I meant in the statement is that the government will review the issue of halal certifications,” she said.

Teresa also admitted that a proper review of her statement was not done before it was distributed to the media.

She also pointed out that the word ’embarrassing’ was what caused the controversy.

“In reality, I meant that if the government enforces halal certifications on restaurant operators, it will not only trigger a negative reaction in the country but may even affect the country’s reputation internationally. Not ’embarrassing’ the country. So, the word ’embarrassing’ was translated by ChatGPT,”

“Unfortunately, the ChatGPT-translated statement had been published and quoted by the mass media including the news portal which is actually a literal translation. You, yourself, know that the media likes to sensationalise reports using headlines that even readers can have a ‘heart attack’ reading it,” she added.

What do you think of her explanation of the controversy surrounding her statement on the halal certificate proposal?

Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

Also read: M’sian Eatery Faces Boycott After FB Wrongly Translates ‘Chee Cheong Fun’ to ‘early-flavored pork sausage powder’