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Against Consensus: On the Need to Break our Echo Chambers
Recently, researchers at MIT conducted a striking experiment1. Participants were divided into three groups and asked to write a short composition. One group relied solely on their own cognitive resources. Another could consult the internet. The third turned to automated writing tools, including ChatGPT. Brain scans revealed a clear —…
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AI-First Interpreting Approach: What it is and Why it Matters
The field of multilingual communication is undergoing a profound transformation. This transformation is rapidly ushering in an AI-first paradigm, a reality in which AI will be the default agent for translation and interpreting services. This shift is not distant or speculative; it is already underway, albeit still in the early…
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Beyond the Hype. Policymakers need advice.
A few days ago I had the pleasure to give a keynote speech titled “Beyond the Hype: Navigating the Promise and Challenges of Technology in Interpreting” at Integrerings- og mangfoldsdirektoratet (IMDi) in Oslo, an institution fostering “equal opportunities, rights and obligations in a diverse society” in Norway. Language technologies have…
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The 3-phases roadmap of AI Interpreting: Moving towards phase 2.
AI or machine interpreting refers to the use of software to translate one spoken language into another (including sign language) in real-time, without human intervention or post-editing. It’s designed for immediate, dynamic communication, whether remote, face-to-face, simultaneous, or consecutive. Speech translation technology has a fairly long history and has been…
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Preparing students for the Day after Tomorrow
Year 2019. Geneva. At a time when technology still seemed distant from the profession of interpreting, I was a young scholar who dared to advocate for a paradigm shift in interpreting. In a panel on interpreter training, I reminded the interpreting academic community of its duty to prepare students and…
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Human-Parity in AI Interpreting
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the intellectual and practical need to develop a Turing Test for Speech Translation to measure whether AI-driven interpreting systems have achieved high level performance in real-time language translation. The proposed test would be passed only when human judges can no longer distinguish whether…
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The Turing Test for Speech Translation
Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have seen Large Language Models (LLMs) pass the famous Turing Test in conversational settings, marking a milestone in AI development. This achievement, demonstrated in some recent empirical studies, illustrates just how closely AI-driven dialogue systems have begun to mimic genuine human interactions. This should also…
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Ethical aspects of Machine Interpreting
Machine interpreting (MI), like any emerging technology, presents a range of ethical challenges that require careful consideration and governance (Cath, 2018; Floridi, 2021). Designed to enhance communication and understanding across language barriers, from everyday interactions to high-stakes scenarios, this technology has the potential to significantly impact diverse areas of human…
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Beyond AI: Why the CIRIN Bulletin Still Matters
In the rapidly evolving approaches to academic work, where digital resources and artificial intelligence are transforming the way research is conducted, there remains a steadfast beacon of scholarly rigor in Interpreting Studies: the CIRIN Bulletin. Compiled biannually by Daniel Gile, one of the most esteemed figures in the discipline, the…