Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Like digging ‘your own professional grave’: The translators grappling
with losing work to AI
Interpreters translate spoken language, such as speeches, phone calls,
or conversations, in real-time. Their skills include public speaking, short-term
memory, quick comprehension, and, of course, translation. They often work in
conferences, hospitals, courtrooms, and business meetings, and are usually paid
by the time. Translators work with written text, converting documents from one
language to another. They need to be linguistically competent in writing and
grammar, and also specialized in industry knowledge, terms, and situations. They
can work anywhere and are usually paid per word or page, or sometimes by the hour.
In 2016, Google launched neural machine translation. It is now used by
more than 500 million people daily across over 200 languages. Then in November
2022, the first generative AI for public use was released: ChatGPT. It added
voice translation and a standalone translation tool in the following years. Now,
if you travel abroad or encounter a foreign language speaker, you can simply
speak to your smartphone for instant translation. As for meeting, Zoom and
Microsoft Teams offer live translation and interpretation features to break
language barriers in meetings.
So, what is the situation and future of interpreters and translators?
Read the article and learn how these language professionals are
struggling to survive in the era of machine translation.
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