AI will make language barriers disappear and diminish our understanding of other cultures

"One of my earliest assignments as a young interpreter was to provide simultaneous interpretation for the proceedings of an ecumenical council that brought together all Christian denominations. As my homework, I dutifully read scripture, the gospels, papal encyclicals and the conclusion of the first council of Nicaea. There was, however, one thing I had not foreseen. Mass was held not in the conference hall, but in the church itself, where there were no booths and the interpreter was required to stand discreetly on the altar."

"Here, translation alone would not suffice the interpreter had to perform the part of the priest, with his unmistakable clerical timbre, the arms outstretched then folded in prayer, the gaze repeatedly lifted towards heaven. My childhood experience as an altar boy helped, as did that innate instinct for the theatrical that seems always to come naturally to Italians. My performance was so flawless that when a telegram arrived from Pope John Paul II wishing the council well, I was entrusted with translating his Latin."

"With AI, the process of conquest through knowledge will be lost Whether the latest developments in artificial intelligence and voice-to-voice interpretation will include a priestly voice setting and the whimsical option of a specific accent, I cannot say. Should they do so, future participants in ecumenical councils will be spared a most curious spectacle and, I venture to think, deprived of a certain charm. Live voice-to-voice interpretation, which the Cologne-based AI translation company DeepL unveiled earlier this month, marks the crossing of a frontier in artificial intelligence and in the realm of language from which there will be no turning back."

"The age of the interpreter is over: that ambiguous figure poised between the shrewd mediator who averts conflict and the scapegoat, who made communication possible not only between speakers of different ton"

An early interpreting assignment required simultaneous translation during an ecumenical council, with Mass held in a church rather than a conference hall. The interpreter had to stand on the altar and perform priest-like gestures, including outstretched arms, folded prayer, and upward gazes. Prior altar-boy experience and theatrical instinct supported a flawless performance, leading to translating a Latin telegram from Pope John Paul II. The text contrasts this human, embodied mediation with AI voice-to-voice interpretation. It suggests future systems may add priestly voice settings or accent options, but also claims that the conquest through knowledge and the interpreter’s unique role will be lost. Live voice-to-voice interpretation is presented as a frontier beyond which there is no return, ending the interpreter’s age.

Read at www.theguardian.com