How will AI affect translators of the future?

gettyimagesbank

By Park Han-sol

What should be the role of a human translator in the age of ever-evolving artificial intelligence (AI)? Will machine-powered translation benefit or replace its human counterparts?

The conundrum is knocking at our door sooner than we imagined.

On the evening of Feb. 8, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) made a surprise announcement about its annual translation awards, two months after having declared the winners for 2022.

Yukiko Matsusue, whose Japanese rendering of the Korean occult thriller webtoon "Mirae's Antique Shop" earned her the state-run organization's annual award for aspiring translators, had relied on the help of Naver's Papago machine-translation service ― which she hadn't made explicitly clear to the organization in the submission process.

While her speaking and listening skills in Korean aren't fluent, she has studied the language for about a year and has been a longtime fan of Korean-language webtoons, Matsusue revealed in a press statement released by LTI Korea.

"After perusing the original piece from beginning to end, I used Papago as an alternative to a dictionary to achieve a more accurate translation," she noted. "As the webtoon in question had a shaman as the protagonist, it contained a number of unfamiliar terms and concepts throughout. I, therefore, tried to identify the context behind the usage of those words by researching the relevant theses and such."

After running it through Papago, she "revised the text to improve its readability" in consideration of the flow of the piece and completed the translation.

The jury had previously not been aware of Matsusue's usage of the AI translation service, commending her work in December as a "translation that shows a full understanding of Korea's shamanistic elements."

In the press statement, LTI Korea vowed to contemplate the scope of a person's collaboration with AI in regard to the act of translating in the future and that it will carry out pertinent policy-level discussions.

Meanwhile, as for its annual prize for aspiring translators, the organization will stipulate from now on that all submissions must be "translations done through one's own efforts without the aid of external factors such as AI," in line with its goal of discovering talented new literature translators.

Whether Matsusue's award will be revoked or not is under review.

gettyimagesbank

Is AI here to stay when it comes to translation?

Jung Ha-yun, a literary translator and associate professor of interpreting and translation at Ewha Womans University, noted that several different factors must be considered, including the changing trend in the translation industry's layered relationship with AI-powered services, before addressing this controversy.

"First of all, bilingual translators who have a good grasp of both languages are much less likely to use AI translators. This is because there is actually a glaring lack of efficiency in trying to edit and revise machine-generated text when they are capable of translating the source language in their own heads," she told The Korea Times.

"That said, nowadays, in the case of amateurs (like Matsusue) and those who lack full fluency in one of the languages, it is highly possible that they will use the help of machine-powered tools as a quicker way to search for unclear terms than with a dictionary."

She went on to highlight that it would be inappropriate to argue that it was simply the power of AI that earned Matsusue the award.

"Even when utilizing an AI service, it is ultimately up to a human translator to revise and amend the machine-generated translation, as part of post-editing, to produce a final product, especially in the case of literary translations," she said. "Human intervention becomes necessary to capture the subtle nuances and tones of the source text ― unless the said text is strictly formulaic and technical."

AI-powered translation services can serve as a tool to assist translators ― like a dictionary or Google search ― but they won't be something that can replace the human element altogether, according to Jung.

Speaking from a more technical perspective, Jeon Chang-bae, chairman of the board of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Ethics (IAAE), said that the main issue here is not about whether Matsusue relied on an AI translator or not.

Rather, it should have more to do with whether she, as the applicant, and LTI Korea, as the award organizer, notified each other and reached an agreement in regard to the usage of machine-powered services ― which they both failed to do.

"In principle, if an individual utilized AI as a tool to create content to enter a competition or a contest, they should make that clear to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings," he told The Korea Times. "Likewise, the host organization needs to specify the scope of its usage within the judging criteria."

The use of AI in creative fields currently lies in a legally and ethically gray area, which means there is a pressing need to set up clearer guidelines and build social consensus, he added.

Meanwhile, Jung cautioned that one alarming issue potentially raised by the emergence of machine-powered translation technology is that it can lead to the devaluation of human labor in the market. She gave examples of corporate clients that would push translators to use the AI tools and take the liberty of cutting down their fees citing "reduced workload."

"Artificial intelligence could continue to be used in this way to restructure the labor market," she said. "Against this backdrop, human translators are now tasked with contemplating their relationship with AI-powered services and what their own roles in the industry are going to be ― because, let's face it, the market is never going to completely remove AI from the picture."