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Data Privacy in AI Translation and Interpreting
Data privacy is a critical concern when using services, whether they are provided by humans or machines. There are many valid reasons for this: you may have confidential information that you do not want others to access, such as business strategies, financial data, or personal health details. Or you simply…
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Agency in AI interpreters
Many people hold a static view of what an AI interpreter is or will be: a tool that translates literally and blindly, no matter how unclear or garbled the original speech is—whether it’s mispronounced, unintelligible, or ambiguous. A mechanical device capable only of direct, word-for-word translations. In other words, a…
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What happens when AI can generate podcasts
This was the question I asked myself when I first heard that this was technically possible. So, I had to try it out. I simply provided a link to something I know very well: my work, and watched the results emerge. Here are two podcasts generated by NotebookLM: The first…
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Towards non-discriminatory multilingualism
Last weekend was Multilingualism Day at the European Institutions. This is a great initiative to showcase why multilingualism matters and what institutions do to make it possible “that all EU citizens can follow the work of directly-elected representatives in any of the 24 official EU languages.” While this effort is…
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4 years ago my journey in speech automation started
Four years ago today, my personal journey in the practical implementation of Machine Interpreting started with a simple application -written in a rainy weekend just for fun- which is still available online for free at www.machine-interpreting.com. Try it out if you are curious! Now, commercial speech translation systems are completely…
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The Clash of Interpretations
In 1993, Samuel P. Huntington introduced the world to the concept of “The Clash of Civilizations” (article available here) positing that future conflicts would be driven by cultural and religious differences. Fast forward three decades, and we are witnessing the surge of a similar kind of cultural clash—not as important…
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Enhance Interpreting Training with YouTube
Interpreting training relies on teachers providing students with suitable speeches to practice. Many times, trainers offer background information for preparation and transcripts of the originals for checking the quality of the rendition. The importance of training materials is demonstrated by the so-called repositories of speech curated by international organizations such…
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Challenges for machine interpreting in high-risk scenarios
Discussions on the impact of translation and interpreting technologies in the field of multilingual communication are more important today than ever. Technology is improving rapidly and will continue to do so in the years to come. Consequently, its use in a multitude of contexts is bound to increase. While in…
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Leadership in Machine Interpreting
Machine interpreting is quickly becoming a part of our reality. It is expected to see broader adoption in the years ahead, driven by significant improvements in translation quality and other factors such as economic and societal changes. In this new era, it’s important to come to terms with a new…