Comment by rasz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rasz | Hacker News Reader

- Insisted on conducting interview in russian despite both being able to speak English.

- Used AI to overdub "translation" using Zelensky's own synthesized voice. Actually putting words into Zelensky's mouth.

- Manipulated translation to replace Zelensky's "we hit people" into "slap everyone on the wrist" while no such expression exist in russian.

- Moved that question to the very beginning (0:40 second) so every American listening will hear this first.

- Posted on Social media about "innocent mistake" https://t.me/s/lexfridman/329

"Hi everyone, I would like to fix a translation in the audio / subtitle that better captures what President Zelenskyy was saying. I will delete this post once we find a good translation. The President said:"

"UPDATE #3 (FINAL): I went with 5: "We cracked down hard on everyone" to make intended meaning absolutely clear."

except 'slap on the wrist' is still there and will be "fixed" after everyone who wanted to hear the interview already listened.

Good job agent Alexei Fedotov!

It's a bad look for Lex Fridman but at least Zelenskyy comes comes out looking pretty good.

It's funny that Lex hasn't sensed the shifting tides, with Putin turning down Trump's plan and Trump becoming ever more pro-Ukrainian.

Apart from that it's interesting to see the difference between Lex and Zelenskyy. They're similar ages, both Jewish, both have Ukrainian roots, both speak Russian. But Lex's family left at a time when Ukrainians and Russians had positive relations and basically missed the separate development of the two nations through the last 30 years (and apparently has been completely asleep through the last 10 years).

Trump becoming pro Ukrainian? Are you talking about Donald Trump?

Listen to his actual words sometime. Not what others say about him.

He’s just a guy trying to use what leverage he thinks he has to negotiate, or pretending he can negotiate, but in the end he will do whatever his boss tells him.

And who do you think his boss is? He's 78, already elected, second term, he literally needs no one, for better or worse.

Musk is obviously running the country while Trump plays golf.

Apparently he got fed up with being called Putin's puppet.

Since when?

Since when everybody started calling him Putin’s puppet.

This doesn't seem like a big deal, frankly. Lex has a bias, and it came out in a minor way. That's all. Would you rather the interview never happen?

GP maybe found one nit to pick too vigorously. However, their first point of asking to conduct the interview in Russian is such a big deal to me that I’ll probably not be listening to Lex anymore. Either it was a completely tone-deaf request from someone excited to practice his rusty Russian, or it was a political play to help frame Zelensky as unreasonable. Neither are good looks.

I’m reminded of an interview William Buckley gave Malcolm X in which the first question was “but what is your real name?” Its a request he knew 100% would be denied, doesn’t pertain to any important issues, and frames his interviewee as uncooperative from the first question.

Now I’m not saying Lex has any responsibility to give Zelensky softball questions. On the other hand he is just some schmuck* in a suit interviewing the commander in chief of a country at war and asking if they could use the language of their aggressors. I don’t like it

* ok maybe I’m biased against lex a little already…

Isn't Russian the native language of Zelensky as well? You may be reading too much into it.

Because of the war, speaking Russian has become political. Many Ukrainians who spoke Russian as their first language now refuse to ever speak it, at least publicly.

It is an odd request though considering Zelenskyy speaks very good English and Lex normally does all his podcasts in English.

he did the interview with Milei in english/spanish mixed too

Because Milei didn't want to use English. Which is fine. He could have done the Zelenskyy interview in English/Ukrainian. That would have been normal. Again, the Russian language is very politically charged in Ukraine right now, for obvious reasons. Which is why Zelenskyy doesn't typically use it in public despite it being his native tongue...

it was just a reply to the "Lex normally does all his podcasts in English." part.

Without diving into the lumpers versus splitters politics too much, how familiar are you with the similarities between Russian and Ukrainian?

>excited to practice his rusty Russian

He's a native Russian speaker who grew up in Moscow. Zelensky is also a native Russian speaker.

Why is it weird that two native Russian speakers would use their native tongue instead of English?

Lex seems to use his interviews as an excuse to listen to his own voice, he just looooves talking over people and is generally insufferable. I wish all those interviews were with someone less in love with themselves.

Are you sure we're talking about the same Lex?

How is changing "we punish" into "slap on the wrist" while using AI to make it seem like Zelensky said it himself, and on top of that moving this single reply to the very beginning to set the tone _not_ a big deal? Its the book definition of spreading fake AI content.

There is no "slap on the wrist" expression in russian language, there is however "схватить вора за руку" meaning catch the thief red-handed while word for word it goes "grab thief by the hand". When you say in russian 'beat their hands' it means punishment, when you say in English "slap on the wrist" it means no punishment or light reprimand.

> There is no "slap on the wrist" expression in russian language

> When you say in russian 'beat their hands' it means punishment

Do you speak russian? They have "получишь по рукам" "получить по рукам" which has the same meaning as "slap on the wrist"

I think pretty much any interviews with Zelensky and or Putin are helpful. I was skeptical that the Tucker Putin interview would be too pro Russian but there was Putin going on about how Hitler was ok and WW2 was the Poles fault for resisting Hitler's desire to take their land and even Tucker looking awkward.

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