What is the impact of instant translation, increasingly efficient thanks to AI, on linguistic diversity? Is this an opportunity or an impoverishment? Interviewed Thursday in Forum, François Grin, professor of economics at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Geneva, provides his analysis.
American giant Google announced on Thursday the addition of 110 languages to Google Translate, including Breton and Occitan. These new languages are in addition to the 133 already active and represent more than 660 million speakers worldwide.
The event raises the question of the impact of artificial intelligence on linguistic diversity and language learning. While some view this phenomenon with a negative eye, this is not the case for François Grin. For him, this development is on the contrary an opportunity. “It makes linguistic diversity more affordable, countering the financial argument against its maintenance,” the economist said on Thursday on the RTS program Forum.
He explains that rare languages like Breton could benefit from this technology by reducing the costs associated with their use, thus helping to create solutions more favorable to its survival. However, other factors such as learning, using and valuing languages are also necessary.
“Direct communication remains preferable”
Furthermore, despite technological progress, learning a new language still makes sense, the specialist believes. “The first reason for this is that direct communication remains preferable as long as we do not have equipment, hardware, that would make the use of machine translation perfectly transparent. But we are not there yet,” notes François Grin.
We will therefore always have good reasons to learn languages, it allows us to experience them
The “considerable” energy cost is also a factor to take into account. “It is not guaranteed that we will be able to use [une interface de traduction immédiate] at all times and in all circumstances. Machine translation is also not always completely reliable. We can have some great surprises […] Direct communication will remain more fluid,” he notes.
Live the language
Furthermore, languages are not limited to communication alone, but also to direct interaction between people, “with all that this implies in terms of affect”. Languages also embody cultures, literatures or even songs. “So we will always have good reasons to learn languages, it allows us to experience them, which is something completely different from simply communicating”, underlines the UNIGE professor.
Finally, research shows that mastering several languages stimulates creativity. “For all these reasons and despite technological advances, language learning still has a future,” argues François Grin.
>> See also the 7:30 p.m. topic on live translation tools:
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