AI and Translation

In a December 2023 op-ed in the New York Times, pioneering artificial intelligence researcher and inventor of the world’s first global-scale online language translator De Kai writes, “You’d be hard pressed to find any arguments against developing translation AIs. Reducing misunderstanding between cultures is probably one of the most important things humanity can do to survive the escalating geopolitical polarization.”

This roundtable on artificial intelligence and translation, part of the ongoing AI and the Humanities series, brings together writers, scholars, and engineers to discuss how AI has impacted literary translation, translation theory, and language instruction. How might AI increase the creative potential of translation? What concerns or anxieties do writers have about translations of their works by AI? Do human translators and AI systems have the same sense of linguistic nuance? How might the digital humanities or cultural analytics draw upon AI for new theories of translation?

Participants: Cathy Park Hong, poet and author; Hoyt Long, University of Chicago