Asst. Prof. Sabri Gürses, Head of the English Translation and Interpreting Department at Üsküdar University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, evaluated the effects of artificial intelligence-based translation tools on the translation and interpreting profession on the occasion of September 30 International Translation Day.
“The need for humans will never disappear”
Asst. Prof. Sabri Gürses stated that despite Google Translate and AI-based tools being able to translate in seconds, the need for human translators will continue, adding that professions, rather than disappearing with technology, transform and gain new areas of expertise.
Dr. Gürses said, “Throughout human history, professions don't actually disappear; new professions and specializations are always added to them. The need for human existence will never disappear just because machines have arrived, because we live in a human world. Technology exists to facilitate people's lives and work, not to eliminate them.”
A translator is no longer just someone who knows a language
Gürses emphasized that in contemporary translation and interpreting education, merely knowing a foreign language is not enough; translators must also specialize in culture, methods, history, and social needs.
“In our era, translators and interpreters are trained not just as people who know languages, but as specialists who understand the methods and history of translation, cultural differences, and social needs,” said Gürses, noting that Turkey's translation tradition continues today in university translation and interpreting departments with new technologies.
“A machine can pretend to know, a human provides a real experience”
Dr. Gürses also touched upon artificial intelligence's capacity to comprehend culture, humor, irony, and social context, stating that AI can learn human behavior and culture through the human-generated data it is fed.
Dr. Gürses said, “Artificial intelligence or machines only know social context as much as they learn from human texts and films they read and copy. Machines do not recognize, experience, or live humanity's unpredictability, soul, psychology, or creativity. They can only pretend to know by looking at the data they have collected.”
Gürses, stating that the fundamental difference between humans and machines is experience, continued:
“This is the human translator's superiority over machines; machines can provide quick solutions by synthesizing the data they have recorded, but humans provide a real experience.”
“AI translation can be fast, but its disasters can also be fast”
Dr. Gürses pointed out that AI translations must be supervised in fields like law, health, diplomacy, and international relations, where even a single wrong word can lead to serious consequences, and stated that control mechanisms are indispensable in professional production processes.
Emphasizing that directly using a translation generated solely by a machine is risky, Dr. Gürses said, “It is always risky to simply take and use a translation made by a machine alone. We know that incorrect, uncontrolled human translations have brought us to the brink of wars. AI translation can be fast, but its disasters can also be fast.”
“We are now in the post-AI era”
Gürses stated that translation and interpreting education has also changed in parallel with technological transformation, adding that artificial intelligence is not a new technology in the field of translation.
“I now believe that we are not in the age of artificial intelligence, but in the post-artificial intelligence era,” said Gürses, continuing his words:
“The age of artificial intelligence began in the 1950s, when the first computers were built, and was almost completed when the entire world connected to the internet. Translation and interpreting education developed similarly. Translators have been using computers, translation memories, and online dictionaries for a long time. In this post-AI era, translation is not about living alongside machines, but living intertwined with them.”
The translator of the future must also understand technology
Gürses stated that technology accelerates translators' access to information and multiplies their resources, expressing that translation fields will diversify even further in the future.
Dr. Gürses said, “Thanks to the easing of their work, faster access to information, and the proliferation of resources, the translator's cultural power and skills have increased. Humans and machines are gradually spreading into space; as colonies are established on the Moon and nearby planets, we will see much more unexpected translation problems and fields emerge.”
Pointing out that many countries are developing their own artificial intelligence systems, Gürses emphasized that future translators must understand not only the subtleties of languages but also technological systems, concluding his words by saying, “Even now, many countries have their own artificial intelligence systems. These ostensibly speak human language, but there is even a need for translators to facilitate communication between them. In this new environment, translators must learn and be able to use the new technologies that shape languages, along with the intricacies of those languages.”
