WillAIGrowthMeananEndforTranslationJobs
InBlogbyRafaelMorel
23April,2021
Communicationiskeyinthemodernworld,whichbecomesincreasinglyglobalizedyearafteryear.Companies,businesses,governmentorganizations,andindividualpeoplecommunicatewitheachotheronadailybasis–thenumberofpersonalandprofessionalinteractionsisontheincrease,aswell.Still,it’sobviousthatasingulargloballanguagedoesn’texist.EnglishandChinesemaybethemostwidelyusedlanguagesoutthere,buttheneedtobeunderstooddoesn’talwaysinvolvetheneedtolearnanon-nativelanguage.Assuch,translationandinterpretingserviceshavealwaysbeenindemand.
Ifyouthinkaboutit,thesesolutionsareextremelyeffectiveintheirsimplicity.Peopleneedtocommunicatewitheachother,companieswanttoreachawideraudience,governmentswanttocooperate,andsoon–that’swheretranslatorsandinterpreterstakethestage.However,asmuchascommunicationliesinhumannature,sodoestheneedforprogressandimprovements.Forthesereasons,ArtificialIntelligenceandmachinetranslationsolutionshavebeeninvented.Thesetechnologicaladvancementshavebecomeapartofthetranslationindustry,withAIbeingimplementedinothersectors,suchashealthcare,education,travel,banking,entertainment,gaming,foodtech,e-commerce,retail,realestate,andmanymore.
BecauseArtificialIntelligenceandmachinetranslationserviceshavebecomeincreasinglypopularovertheyears,anddevelopersareworkingtirelesslytoimprovethem,peoplestartedtowonderhowlikelyitisforAItoreplacehumantranslatorsatsomepointinthenearfuture.Ifyouwanttofindoutwhethermachineswilltakeoverhumanjobsinthetranslationandinterpretingsector,keeponreading!
TranslationandInterpreting
Beforewediveintoouranalysisandprognosisforthefutureofthetranslationindustry,let’sexplainthedifferencebetweentranslationandinterpreting.Theselinguisticdisciplinesarecloselyrelated,buttheydealwithdifferentaspectsofhumanlanguage,whichiswhythey’rerarelyperformedbythesamepeople.Simplyput,atranslatordealswithwrittentexts,translatingoriginaldocumentstotheirassignedtargetlanguage.Aninterpreter,ontheotherhand,dealswithspeeches,performedliveorrecorded,beitinreal-time,simultaneouslywiththespeaker(simultaneousinterpreting)orrightaftertheyfinishtalking(consecutiveinterpreting).
Asyoucansee,thesetwotypesofservicesarequitedifferent,yettheyhavethesamegoal.Professionaltranslatorsandinterpretersworktirelesslytohelppeopleunderstandeachother,beitviaspeeches,audio-visualmeans,ortexts.Bothservicesrequireafairdealoflanguageprocessingskills,aswellasextra-linguisticskillstoensureoptimalaccuracy.Obviously,translationandinterpretingexpertsareabletoprovidetheirclientswithhigh-qualityservices.However,speedandefficiencyareinhighdemandandthat’swherethehumanfactorcanactuallyactasadisadvantage.Assuch,theglobalmarketfindsmachinetranslationsandAI-basedtechnologiesaspossiblesolutionsthatcanpossibly,atsomepointinthefuture,replacehumansandtakeoverthetranslationindustry.