Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics concerned with the relationship of words and sentences to the environment in which they occur. We might also call this context. Machines can’t grasp pragmatics and context — not Google Translate, not ChatGPT, or anything like them. Machines and artificial intelligences don’t interact with the real world. Nothing means anything to them.

I recently made the mistake of reading the text on a sprayer bottle as I was misting a few of my house plants. The text came in English and Spanish. I understand both languages, and I saw errors. Worst of all, this error, which no human would make:

Weed Killers (Deshierbe a Asesinos)

The Spanish version does, in fact, mean “Weed Killers” in the sense of “Go weed the killers” or “You must pull out the weeds on assassins.”

It should say:

Weed Killers (Herbicidas)

As a human being, I can only laugh. Or weep. When the robots take over, they’re going to make so many mistakes…