DeepL launches AI-powered sentence editor in Korea

The German AI-powered translation service is expanding into editing with its large language model.

Jarek Kutylowski, founder and CEO of DeepL, speaks to the Korean press at a hotel in southern Seoul on Friday. [DEEPL]

German startup DeepL, known for its AI-powered machine translation, is making a foray into the realm of writing where it adjusts the style of the sentences according to user preference with an emphasis on business application.

The startup launched the service, powered by its own large language model (LLM), in Korea on Friday. It is available in English and German with a plan to expand the number of languages supported.

The style of the sentence can be selected from four style options — business, academic, simple and casual — and four tone options — friendly, diplomatic, confident and enthusiastic.

"Words matter, and language can be the competitive edge that moves the needle for global businesses," said Jarek Kutylowski, the company's founder and CEO.

"DeepL Write Pro is our first product powered by our own LLMs, and is the culmination of years of research and innovation that has set us apart from other tech giants."

With the service targeting business clients rather than individuals, DeepL boasts enterprise-level security solutions such as encryption and text deletion.

Kutylowski made sure data collected from corporate clients won't be used to train the LLM, although those from individual users are.

DeepL, which was founded in 2017 as an AI-powered machine translator, launched the translation service in Korea last year.

"In the case of Korean to English translation, we noticed that many of our Korean customers don't want to use the first version of the translation," the CEO said in a press conference in Seoul on Friday, adding that this is where DeepL comes in with its supremacy in accuracy.

According to an internal blind test with professional translators, it was found that Koreans prefer the translation service of DeepL 3.9 times more than Google and four to 4.7 times more than GPT.

The German startup aims to expand its scope of business to translating spoken language in the near future, although a specific timeline was not shared.

"We want to launch the service when the research has been done to make it meet the quality threshold," Kutylowski said.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]