Commercial register of Schwyz: extracts translated into English by Neur.on’s AI
Neur.on team25 November 20242 min readThe commercial register of the canton of Schwyz offers AI translations of its extracts into English, something no other canton provides. Neur.on developed the translation model through the Canton of Zurich’s Innovation Sandbox for Artificial Intelligence. DV Bern AG, which is responsible for zefix.ch, handled implementation on the authorities’ side.
The canton of Schwyz is an AI trendsetter.
The commercial register of Schwyz now offers something no other canton does: AI-powered translations of extracts into English.
Schwyz is not only the picturesque cradle of Switzerland, to which it gave its name. The canton has also just introduced a very pragmatic application of AI for the businesses based on its territory.
How did the extract translation project come about?
In the past, hundreds of people called the Schwyz commercial register every month with one and the same request: “I need a reliable English translation of an extract. Can you please help me?”
Othmar Aeschi of the Handelsregister Schwyz, known as a driver of innovation, had the informed intuition that AI could help. He got in touch with Raphael von Thiessen of the Business and Economic Development Division of the Amt für Wirtschaft, Kanton Zürich. Raphael featured the challenge in the office’s Innovation Sandbox for Artificial Intelligence and matched Neur.on with the Schwyz commercial register. And we developed the most accurate translation model for exactly this purpose. On the authorities’ side, the project was then implemented with the support of DV Bern AG, the specialist IT company responsible for the online commercial register platform, zefix.ch.
Why are Swiss legal concepts difficult to translate into English?
The challenge was not only one of natural language processing engineering. The even bigger question was how to translate typically Swiss legal concepts accurately into English, avoiding misunderstandings (or even awkwardness) in cross-border dealings.
- Prokurist?
- Kollektivunterschrift zu zweien?
- Gesellschafter (einer GmbH vs. einer Kommanditgesellschaft)?
- Streichung vs. Löschung?
- Stimmrechtsaktien vs. Vorzugsaktien?
If you have ever wondered how to translate each of these terms correctly in context, you know how far off the mark a mediocre translation can be.
And as the icing on the cake for lawyer-linguists, we were also able to work on gender-neutral translations, especially for positions on the board of directors that, 50 years ago, were held exclusively by men.
As you can see, high-end AI projects require extensive human domain expertise to succeed.
Who contributed to the project?
A warm thank you to all the project stakeholders, in particular for the countless hours invested by Othmar Aeschi of the Handelsregister Schwyz, Raphael von Thiessen of the Amt für Wirtschaft, and Thierry Coita and Michael Gillmann of DV Bern AG. Thanks also to Carmen Walker Späh for her tireless support for Innovation Zurich.
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