Over the last few years, the development of AI technology has often been viewed with certain hesitation and wariness by linguists. Some fear that new technologies will leave them behind, or that they will be replaced by machine interpretating engines. Yet, for many “digital natives”, AI tools represent an exciting opportunity to make preparation and live interpreting easier or more engaging. They represent the next step in careers that have never been without technology – for example, I didn’t have to become accustomed to remote interpreting; my very first interpreting lectures were online because of the pandemic! Personally, I even take the total demonisation of machine interpreting with a pinch of salt. It will make vital communication accessible when using low resource languages, or in situations where human interpreting is unfeasible, such as conflict zones, and will undoubtedly save lives.
I had the privilege of studying my MA at the University of Surrey, where emerging technologies are at the core of the interpreting curriculum. Whilst many look fearfully to the concepts of “machine interpreting”, Surrey takes a much more measured approach as to how AI and other technologies can aid the interpreter. In class, we focused on “live” AI interpreting aids, looking at specific glossary terminology retrieval or AI boothmates with Automatic Speech Recognition and transcription technologies to help interpreters keep up. Current research is undecided on the effectiveness of these tools and how they affect interpreters’ cognitive load, but I am sure that as interpreters become accustomed to using them, and more digital natives join the workforce, they will become an essential part of many interpreting assignments. I imagine one day we will ask ourselves how we ever kept track of so many names and numbers without these softwares!
Whilst all these incredible technologies deserve their due credit, I would like to give some time to some of the less flashy uses of AI – particularly LLMS – that have been extremely helpful during my studies. First, LLMs are great at reducing the tediousness of glossary building. For example, ChatGPT can instantly extract frequently used terminology from reference texts and, whilst caution is necessary to avoid hallucinations, this is much faster and more practical than manually searching the internet. I also often ask for a short definition to add to my glossary or a detailed explanation of unfamiliar concepts. Furthermore, when presented with parallel translated reference texts, ChatGPT can organise the texts side-by-side to build a small-scale parallel corpus, allowing you to see how terminology is used in context.
I also used AI to create practice speeches for me. Some (many) conference topics are niche, and finding relevant material to practise with is hard for students. But LLMs can provide endless speeches that can be used to familiarise oneself with the forms or style of certain contexts or read aloud by a text-to-speech AI to practise interpreting with. Having tailored practice material helps me calm my nerves enormously; I can ask ChatGPT to write a script for a doctor’s appointment about blood pressure, a conference on biodiversity, a political speech in the style of Rishi Sunak – anything! Clearly, the contents won’t be entirely accurate, but I find that having some indication of what I might face while working is much more useful than just trying to cram terminology into my brain and practising my interpreting skills separately on unrelated training speeches.
In my career, I will continue to experiment with AI to streamline my workflow and make preparation more enjoyable, and I encourage others to do the same! I look forward to seeing how AI will be implemented in our careers in the future, as, I believe, with sense and critical thinking, it can be an enormously helpful tool for interpreters at all stages of their careers, rather than the threatening beast it is often seen as.
Georgia Meakins MA is a recently graduated English and Spanish-speaking interpreter based in the UK. You can find and follow her on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/georgia-meakins
