Translation is an "AI-complete" problem, if I may coin a phrase. Because language expresses human ideas, and languages do not map 1-1, proper translation can so

Translation is an "AI-complete" problem, if I may coin a phrase. Because language expresses human ideas, and languages do not map 1-1, proper translation can sometimes require a complete understanding of the source material (in order to properly circumlocute in the target language). This is not "quite a tough problem to solve"; it is on par with the Turing test. Hofstadter is not complaining about how awful it would be if computers could pass the Turing test - I'm sure he would be quite as impressed as you - he is saying that given that Strong AI is pure fantasy at the moment, it would be a tragedy and an insult to language to abandon human translation in favour of a half-assed mechanical version.