Artificial intelligence and posthumanist translation: ChatGPT versus the translator
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Tong King Lee
Abstract
Although automated translation has been available for decades in myriad forms, the implication of the current exponential advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) for communication in general and translation in particular is more starkly affrontational than ever. Although Large Language Models, of which ChatGPT is exemplary, were not specifically designed for translation purposes, they are attested to have attained a sufficient degree of technical sophistication as to generate translations that match or surpass dedicated translation systems in the market like Google Translate and DeepL. This impacts the modus operandi of communication and the self-concept of language professionals including, of course, translators. This article asks how translation as a field of practice can best respond to this development. It critically reflects on the implications of AI for the conception of translation, arguing that an alternative framing around the idea of distribution allows us to rescale translation toward broader competencies and conceive of AI as a prosthesis of translators’ minds. The article advocates a posthumanist perspective on translation with a view to expanding its spectrum of skills, modes, and media as well as transcending the traditional personae of translators.
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© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Interactional features in second language classroom discourse: variations across novice and experienced language teachers
- English-medium instruction and impact on academic performance: a randomized control study
- ESL classroom interactions in a translanguaging space
- Motivation profiles of Chinese rural foreign language learners: link with learning strategy and achievement
- Translingual practice as a representation of heritage languages and regional identities in multilingual society
- Pedagogical implications of translingual practices for content and language integrated learning
- Understanding micro-blogging users’ translanguaging in Chinese language play: a qualitative phenomenological approach
- Do teachers’ well-being and resilience predict their Foreign Language Teaching Enjoyment (FLTE)?
- Investigating in-class and after-class boredom among advanced learners of English: intensity, interrelationships and learner profiles
- Africatown in Guangzhou as geosemiotic assemblage: connecting multilingualism, store signs, and chronotopes
- “I’m not angry!”: language ideologies, misunderstanding, and marginalization among North Korean refugees in rural South Korea
- Developing a taxonomy of teacher emotion labor through metaphor: personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural angles
- When women’s empowerment meets health communication: a critical discourse analysis of the WeChat official account “Health China”
- “I never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion”: unveiling EFL teachers’ perspectives about emotions in assessment
- How ‘good-enough’ is second language comprehension? Morphological causative and suffixal passive constructions in Korean
- The predictive effect of language achievement on multiple emotions in languages other than English: validating a distal mediation model based on the control-value theory
- Narratives of the self in bilingual speakers: the neurophenomenal space
- Uncovering English as a foreign language teacher resilience: a structural equation modeling approach
- Documenting students’ conceptual understanding of second language vocabulary knowledge: a translanguaging analysis of classroom interactions in a primary English as a second language classroom for linguistically and culturally diverse students
- Investigating translanguaging strategies and online self-presentation through internet slang on Douyin (Chinese TikTok)
- Collaboratively pursuing student uptake of feedback through storytelling: a conversation analytic study of interaction in team doctoral supervision
- Languages ontologies in higher education: the world-making practices of language teachers
- English loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese: false friend cognates and English vocabulary acquisition
- Artificial intelligence and posthumanist translation: ChatGPT versus the translator
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Interactional features in second language classroom discourse: variations across novice and experienced language teachers
- English-medium instruction and impact on academic performance: a randomized control study
- ESL classroom interactions in a translanguaging space
- Motivation profiles of Chinese rural foreign language learners: link with learning strategy and achievement
- Translingual practice as a representation of heritage languages and regional identities in multilingual society
- Pedagogical implications of translingual practices for content and language integrated learning
- Understanding micro-blogging users’ translanguaging in Chinese language play: a qualitative phenomenological approach
- Do teachers’ well-being and resilience predict their Foreign Language Teaching Enjoyment (FLTE)?
- Investigating in-class and after-class boredom among advanced learners of English: intensity, interrelationships and learner profiles
- Africatown in Guangzhou as geosemiotic assemblage: connecting multilingualism, store signs, and chronotopes
- “I’m not angry!”: language ideologies, misunderstanding, and marginalization among North Korean refugees in rural South Korea
- Developing a taxonomy of teacher emotion labor through metaphor: personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural angles
- When women’s empowerment meets health communication: a critical discourse analysis of the WeChat official account “Health China”
- “I never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion”: unveiling EFL teachers’ perspectives about emotions in assessment
- How ‘good-enough’ is second language comprehension? Morphological causative and suffixal passive constructions in Korean
- The predictive effect of language achievement on multiple emotions in languages other than English: validating a distal mediation model based on the control-value theory
- Narratives of the self in bilingual speakers: the neurophenomenal space
- Uncovering English as a foreign language teacher resilience: a structural equation modeling approach
- Documenting students’ conceptual understanding of second language vocabulary knowledge: a translanguaging analysis of classroom interactions in a primary English as a second language classroom for linguistically and culturally diverse students
- Investigating translanguaging strategies and online self-presentation through internet slang on Douyin (Chinese TikTok)
- Collaboratively pursuing student uptake of feedback through storytelling: a conversation analytic study of interaction in team doctoral supervision
- Languages ontologies in higher education: the world-making practices of language teachers
- English loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese: false friend cognates and English vocabulary acquisition
- Artificial intelligence and posthumanist translation: ChatGPT versus the translator
