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Translate any foreign‐language article into English using OpenAI’s chat completion API. In this tutorial, you’ll:
  1. Set up the OpenAI Python client
  2. Load the article text into a variable
  3. Craft a translation prompt
  4. Implement an article_translator function
  5. Execute the function and display the result

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1. Prerequisites

  • Python 3.7+
  • An OpenAI API key
  • The openai Python package installed: 
    pip install openai
Never hard-code your API key in source files. Use environment variables or a secrets manager:
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

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2. Initialize the OpenAI Client

Import and configure the client with your API key. 
import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY"))

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3. Prepare the Article Text & Prompt

Chat models cannot fetch URLs directly, so load your article content into a string. Later, you can extend this for web scraping or file input. 
# Sample article text in Japanese
article = (
    "監視機器大手オリンパスの前社長CEC【高橋雄資】は、警視庁は、"
    "自然なカメラマンの金賞受賞者として、東京の都庁と同社の営業法違反の疑いで通報し、"
    "8日発表した。"
)

# Build the translation prompt
prompt = f"Translate the following article into English:\n\n{article}"
You can replace the hard-coded article variable with any string input or file contents for batch translation.

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4. Define the Translator Function

Create a reusable function that sends the system and user messages to the chat completion endpoint.
A low temperature (e.g., 0.1) ensures a faithful translation. 
def article_translator(prompt: str) -> str:
    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4",
        messages=[
            {
                "role": "system",
                "content": (
                    "You are a professional translator specializing in news articles. "
                    "Provide a direct, accurate English translation without commentary."
                ),
            },
            {"role": "user", "content": prompt},
        ],
        temperature=0.1,
    )
    return response.choices[0].message.content

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API Parameters Overview

ParameterDescriptionExample
modelThe chat model to use"gpt-4"
messagesConversation history with rolesList of dicts
temperatureControls randomness (0 = deterministic)0.1

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5. Run the Translator

Execute the script and print the translated text. 
if __name__ == "__main__":
    translation = article_translator(prompt)
    print(translation)

$ python translate_article.py
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced on the 8th that they reported Yusuke Takahashi, 
former president of major surveillance-equipment manufacturer Olympus, on suspicion of violating commercial 
law by acting as an unauthorized cameraman prize judge in Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government Building. 
The department says their investigation will continue carefully.

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What’s Next?

  • Batch-translate multiple articles
  • Scrape article URLs automatically before translation
  • Summarize translated content or detect sentiment

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