We are perhaps witnessing the greatest period for humanity of all times in terms of life quality, currently benefiting from advantages that make our lives easier, concepts that people from decades ago could not even think about.

Technology and the translator: technology has reached a point where it can be considered a real ally in the work of many of us, no matter the field, if used properly. The most pertinent consequence of the evolution of technology is the impact it has on our daily lives. From household appliances to means of communication, AI has made our work easier and led to new findings. People have researched and invented devices to help them and, in some cases, they ended up being replaced by their own discoveries.

Thus, this is not the first time in history when human input is put at risk in many professions. Fortunately, humanity has a great ability to adapt and often overcame lots of major changes: from drivers replaced by self-driving cars to cashiers replaced by self-scanning cash registers. These changes make us wonder about the translation field as well. As we are always open to research and evolution, we want to weight up some key factors through an antithesis between two forces designed to support each other – man and technology or translator and artificial intelligence – and we are about to draw a conclusion together at the end – or just raise more questions.

When it comes to the difference between seeing technology as a threat or as a helping tool, we choose to see it as a helping tool and here’s why:

Human abilities in the translation field

Reasoning

The primary human ability is the cognitive process or reasoning. The human mind has been in a constant battle with artificial intelligence. Robots are in some ways faster and more productive than the human brain, but these two functions are distinct, because AI does not perceive more than it possesses in its area of competence, making human assistance still essential. Along with the development of technology and globalization, the demand for translation services has grown considerably. Technology has also caused an acceleration of the deadlines for language localization, translation, and subtitling services, so we use professional software to provide fast and high quality translations. Among the main tools used by translators are CAT tools – computer-assisted translation tools, such as Trados Studio, Wordbee, Smartcat or Crowdin. By using translation memories and terminology databases to automatically generate repeating phrases and terms, we speed up the translation process.

Experience

As in all other fields, the translation field encounters unique situations, obstacles that artificial intelligence would identify as problems. Any professional translator will take the problem as a challenge to which it can find solutions through experience or even through his own mistakes.

Logic

One of the factors that can only be reproduced by the human mind is abstraction. The translator can perceive concepts at a much higher level because he is not limited by a template of algorithms imposed in advance. It is much safer to rely on a program when we have a technical translation, and among the best translation software is DeepL Translate. However, we cannot rely exclusively on software-generated translations. We all know that famous error that makes us check before handing over the final product to the client, where we would not have thought that such human “assistance” was needed. We are talking about a label for the famous dessert, Turkish delight, for which the translation was far from “Turkish delight”. That’s why we highlight the importance of proofreading services, and we are extremely careful about the quality of our translations.

Language as a human specific communication tool

• By definition, language is the specific means of communication through which people express their thoughts and, more importantly, their feelings. Of all the translation fields, the literary translation is the one least exposed to the danger of the expansion of digitalization, because this field comprises a human part that artificial intelligence lacks. A valuable literary translation is one made with human empathy, in such a way that the message of the literary text, poem or any creative writing is mirrored in the target language. The translator’s voice has almost the same impact as the writer’s because his mission is to culturally adapt and spread the message around the world, while taking into consideration all the specifics the author relied on when writing it. For more information on literary translation, we recommend our articles: Mircea Pricăjan •• Author and translator and Simina Popa •• Translator of Portuguese Literature.
• Also, a significant side of artistic translations is represented by subtitling. Subtitles contain cultural information and locale that cannot be simply expressed by a machine or by person speaking a foreign language, because the contribution of a native speaker of the target language is essential to be able to provide the most authentic experience to the target audience.

The pragmatic approach

• AI may encounter errors in the field of translations, especially in the subtitling industry, because it lacks a human-specific side of linguistics-pragmatics. While from the semantic point of view, a machine translation program could render the meaning of words because of human implementation, we cannot expect the same in the field of pragmatics. It is a component that you use every day without even noticing, and it is highly connected with the interpretation of language situations. Every sentence you utter has a motivation or an intention. These cannot be rendered by a software, because the machine is not able to perceive the affective state of the speaker. For example, in a speech, speakers may use humor or sarcasm, forms of expression that need to be carefully expressed in nuances through creativity. Also, the same sentence (e.g., “What a nice hat!”) can denote both a compliment or an irony, depending on the speaker’s intention. The translator may identify the nuances according to the pragmatic context through interpretation. Such linguistic nuances cannot be rendered by artificial intelligence. The context in which the dialogue takes place is significant because a translator takes into account the target audience, be it children, adults or people with hearing impairment.
• The pragmatics branch is also essential in interpretation projects. We can better understand the importance of translators and interpreters in the current armed conflict. Nowadays, a word could mean the world, it can stop a real fight or the spread of misinformation that would create panic among population. If the fate of the whole country depended on a dialogue between two heads of state, would you rely on a specialist translator who is knowledgeable and in touch with reality or on software?

My conclusion

We think that the field is not endangered by AI, and translators and interpreters will continue to use these machine translation tools or translation memories to their and their clients’ advantage. For translators, technology is an aid to generate high quality translations in the shortest time possible. In such a dynamic world, we encourage translators to continually research new ways in which they can better the value of their work.

The profession of a translator is changing and evolving every day, and the people behind this title are in a continuous research and advance as technology evolves to provide quality translation services and a meaningful contribution to the world. If we haven’t yet convinced you of the importance of translators, we invite you to read the following article: “Machine Translation – Friend or Foe?”

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