Do you have questions about standard Catalan? Don't ask them in the GPT Chat.

BarcelonaOne in four people now search for information and everyday questions on ChatGPT rather than on Google. Thirty percent of users trust chat responses more than search engines. This percentage rises even higher among Generation Z. Many users use ChatGPT to create summaries, translations, letters, and presentations. However, if these users intend to write in normative Catalan, they will have to be careful. The Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) warns that artificial intelligence does not take all registers into account and, for example, does not distinguish normative Catalan from that which is not. It also includes incorrect references that induce false credibility.

Let's take an example. We asked ChatGPT: "What is the normative name in Catalan for the compartment of a boat intended for the habitation of people?" And they responded: "Normatively, in Catalan, the compartment of a boat intended for the habitation of people is called cabin". First mistake: cabin It is not a normative word. But the answer is longer and is –apparently– well-founded: "It is the term collected by the Dictionary of the Catalan language of the IEC and by Encyclopedic dictionary of the Catalan language, where it is defined as: "Compartment of a vessel intended for the habitation of persons." New error: the DIEC does not include the term cabin and therefore it is neither normative nor does this definition exist. Encyclopedic dictionary of the Catalan language The work you are citing is a work published at the beginning of the century that has neither official nor normative character, and does not exist online. The ChatGPT insists that "the correct normative term is cabinbut they also exist camera and cabin, which does not consider such refined terms, although they are indeed normative. A cabin, according to the DIEC, is a "small room on a ship where a crew member or passenger can sleep."

The president of the IEC Philological Section, Nicolau Dols, has been testing the ChatGPT with more questions about syntax, morphology, and vocabulary, which he answers with errors and false attributions. "What is the normative name in Catalan for the piece of cardboard on which a painting or engraving is placed and which is used to frame it?" he asks. "Normatively, in Catalan, this piece is called passepartout. He Dictionary of the Catalan language The IEC defines the term as: "A piece of cardboard with a central opening where a photograph, drawing, engraving, etc., is placed to frame it." Again, doubly false. Passepartout It does not appear in the DIEC and, therefore, is not normative. It does appear mat to the Great dictionary of the Catalan language and the Termcat also incorporates it adapted as mat.

And continuing with the same theme: "How do you correctly and normatively say in Catalan the room where surgical interventions are performed?" According to ChatGPT, "the correct term and one of general use both in the medical field and in official documents" is operating room, which also says that it appears in the DIEC, which is false. Operating room It is considered a translation of Castilian and does not appear in the standard dictionary; we would call it operating room.

The IEC has already set to work to "become visible" and ensure that Catalan regulations are present in a tool that has 190 million daily users, and ChatGPT itself estimates that it has 1.2 million in Catalonia. "The most serious problem is not that it doesn't see us, but that it sometimes spreads clearly false information," Dols points out. He adds: "This is a danger for people who want to resolve doubts about normative language by consulting ChatGPT and other similar systems. The advice is to consult the IEC's dictionaries, grammars, and other normative resources." The DIEC2 is updated digitally twice a year, and all online linguistic resources are compiled. under the same umbrella and they are open and free.