Will the development of artificial intelligence lead to unemployment in translation?

In the context of the internet era, the continuous improvement of artificial intelligence is gradually changing people's daily lives. Initially, AI was perceived as rigid and lacking adaptability. However, with Google's AlphaGo becoming the first AI to defeat a world champion in Go a few years ago, people began to realize that perhaps one day, AI could replace human roles in various fields. So, what does the future hold for the translation industry in this rapidly advancing landscape of artificial intelligence?

Firstly, it must be acknowledged that with the ongoing optimization of deep learning algorithms and the increasing availability of learnable text, the quality of machine translation will improve further in the foreseeable future, approaching the level of normal human translation. As technology continues to develop, the accuracy of machine translation for formal texts will increase. This will impact many positions in written translation. Furthermore, with the constant enhancement of technologies such as speech recognition and speech synthesis, some simple interpreting tasks will gradually be replaced by artificial intelligence.

However, I believe the charm of language lies not only in conveying the literal meaning of articles and dialogues but also in the underlying meanings behind the words—specifically, the speaker's intent. While AI can achieve precise translations of every sentence through its powerful database, it can never replicate the communicative power of language because machines lack emotions. For example, a girlfriend might frequently express dislike for a word her boyfriend uses. Her intention may genuinely reflect dislike or it could be a form of endearment. Understanding this word requires considering different contexts, which is easy for humans but quite challenging for machines. Thus, my conclusion is that AI cannot fully replace the translation industry.

So, how should the translation industry navigate its path amidst the rise of artificial intelligence? I believe that machine translation is not necessarily a bad thing for human translators. The advancement of technology can promote productivity. While AI may not replace the translation industry, it can indeed alleviate the workload of translators, as many basic translation tasks can be handled by AI. This allows translators to free themselves from monotonous mechanical translation tasks and invest their time and energy into more creative work.

In the future, translation may exhibit the following characteristics: machines will handle basic translation tasks, while translators modify, adjust, and refine these translations. This approach combines the efficiency of machines with the rigor of human translation.

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