People were thinking seriously about translation long before anyone thought of studying it. Cicero, defending his renderings of the Attic orators, already distinguished between translating ut interpres and ut orator — word for word, or sense for sense. Jerome wrestled with the same dilemma in his letter to Pammachius; Luther defended his German Bible against…
Category: AI
“AI just swaps words” – Rethinking Semantics in the Age of AI
Machine translation is still often dismissed by translators and interpreters as a simplistic word-swapping device, i.e. an automated dictionary that turns sentence A into sentence B by juggling vocabulary. This argument is used every day to suggest that machine translation is inherently limited and, ultimately, pointless. What’s striking is that this misconception mirrors another widespread…
The Day the German Chancellor Said AI will Replace Interpreters in the EU
When asked recently about Spain’s request to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official languages of the European Union, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered a confident answer: “I believe that even in the medium term there is a very good solution: one day, thanks to artificial intelligence, we will no longer need interpreters. We will be…
Why the Next Big Wave of Speech Innovation May Be Hyperlocal
In the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence, speech translation is often portrayed as a race already won by a handful of global titans. Meta, Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and a few others have built astonishing systems capable of turning speech from one language into another almost instantly. Around them, a constellation of specialized companies — KUDO,…
Reducing Latency in Simultaneous Machine Interpreting with LLMs
I have recently focused my efforts on a major pain point for users of simultaneous speech translation systems: latency. In real-world production environments, it’s not uncommon to see systems with a delay of 8, 10, or even 12 seconds or more, which makes for a frustrating and disjointed experience. The good news is that with…
Private by Design: Rethinking AI Interpreting Beyond the Cloud
In recent weeks, an interpreter made headlines. According to Le Monde, the European Commission dismissed an interpreter suspected of espionage on behalf of Moscow. The individual had reportedly taken notes (while not interpreting) during a high-level, closed-door meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late 2024. The dismissal followed an internal investigation into the interpreter’s…
When Microsoft Ranked Us First — and It Wasn’t Good News
A few weeks ago, Microsoft released an interesting paper titled “Working with AI: Measuring the Occupational Implications of Generative AI” ranking professions based on their alignment with the current capabilities of artificial intelligence. Of all the groups, translators and interpreters were the most aligned. The paper (or to be more precise the screenshot of one…
A Handbook for an Industry in Flux: Interpreting Meets the Age of AI
In recent years, interpreting has undergone a silent but profound transformation. What was once a firmly analog profession rooted in face-to-face communication has been increasingly shaped by digital tools, remote platforms, and — more recently — artificial intelligence. Back in 2018, I proposed the idea of a “technological turn” in interpreting, anticipating a period in…
If Quality Is Contextual, Then AI May Be Better Equipped Than We Think
As Director for Interpretation at the European Parliament, Alison Graves offers in this video thoughtful reflections on the evolving notion of quality in conference interpreting. In her presentation, focused on human interpretation, she moves away from rigid, perfectionist definitions and supposedly objective notions of quality, instead emphasizing the contextual, listener-centered nature of interpreting. Her arguments…
Is AI interpreting ready for prime time?
Over the last few years, AI interpreting has made a leap, from flashy demos to real-world products. Machines can now translate speech between languages, sometimes with impressive accuracy. But interpreting isn’t just about getting the words right. It’s about context, nuance, stakes. And that’s where things get tricky. So, how good is AI at interpreting…