If you’ve been using the Internet for any length of time, you’ve probably used a tool like Google Translate to convert webpages or snippets of text to and from languages ranging from Uzbek to Esperanto. But what if you want to translate into more esoteric “languages” like “LinkedIn Speak,” “Gen Z slang,” or “horny Margaret Thatcher”?
This week, many people across the Internet have been bemused to find that the AI-powered Kagi Translate can perform these and countless other unlikely “translation” tasks. And while the collective discovery highlights the playful, creative side of large language models, it also exposes the risks of letting users play with generalized LLM tools.
What is a “language,” really?
While you might know Kagi best as the paid competitor to Google’s ever-worsening search product, the company launched its Kagi Translate tool back in 2024, saying at the time that it was a “simply better” competitor to tools like Google Translate and DeepL. At launch, the company said Kagi Translate “uses a combination of LLMs, selecting and optimizing the best output for each task,” a fact that “can occasionally lead to quirks that we’re actively working to resolve.”
The first versions of the tool featured simple dropdown menus to choose from 244 different languages for the source and target of the translation. In February 2025, though, at least one unheralded Hacker News poster noticed that you could play with the URL parameters to set the target language to “rude man with a Boston accent” without breaking anything.
In recent weeks, Kagi’s own social media account has highlighted the service’s ability to imitate “Reddit Speak” or generate McKinsey consultant speak with a few clicks on Kagi Translate. Early Tuesday morning, though, these unorthodox use cases broke containment after a Hacker News user delighted in reporting that “Kagi Translate now supports LinkedIn Speak as an output language.” Further down in that popular HN thread, other users noticed that you can alter the output language just by typing into the search bar of Kagi Translate’s web interface, and the tool’s underlying AI would do its best to accommodate you.
Source: arstechnica.com
