Will translators in Israel go the way of telephone switchboard operators, bank tellers and travel agents, or will they still be in demand? Do advances in AI and Machine Translation close the door? No, says Lichi Translations CEO Mikhal Heffer, translators are here to stay – as long as they can adapt.
When we do wonderful things with our smartphones (including talking to people sometimes) we forget that not so long ago we needed somebody to ‘plug us in’ for conversations. Technology is leaping ahead in incredible ways to make our lives more convenient.
For translations, many people have now switched to AI tools like ChatGPT to help them cross the bridges between languages. These tools have become much better, cutting the time to get to a translation ‘at the first stage’. Sometimes it’s enough. At Lichi in Israel we use more advanced AI programs to start translating the content from one language to another. But there’s a lot more to do!
Nothing can replace the human eye and the human experience in translations. Each language has its own environment of idiom and subtilty, which has a role to play. This raises the issue of ‘transcreation’ – which is the natural next step for Lichi after ‘translation’.
Transcreation is a blend of editing and creative writing. Progressive translation agencies like Lichi in Israel have already embraced such skills to deliver a high quality of translation in every field – technical, medical, social, marketing and more. This is what we mean by professional translators being able to adapt. Errors and misinterpretations are an expected part of AI machine-translation and must be processed out.
Can AI accurately mimic human expression? Look at the ‘speech recognition’ systems. They try their best but it’s always a bit of a gamble whether they can capture our true meaning. Do you remember that funny scene from a few years back when two Scottish men got into a voice-activated lift (‘elevator’) with no buttons and shouted ‘ELEVEN’ to try to get to their floor? See ‘Elevator Recognition’.
There’s also that funny anecdote:
Call of ship in distress “Help us, we are sinking!”
German Coastguard: “What are you ‘sinking’ about?”
Yes, for anything valuable and serious, we’ll continue to need skilled and experienced translators who work across the spectrum of world languages. They are the ones who can truly understand us and give us the authentic voice of convincing expression. That’s the test. Use AI by all means, but understand where their capabilities stop.
Mikhal Heffer
Lichi Translations is an established yet dynamic translation agency in Israel with deep experience in integrating AI tools as it runs ambitious projects for local and international clients.
