7 minute read
2023 Summer VIEWS Conference Edition
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE INTERPRETING COMMUNITY: RID IS ON THE TRAIN!
Written by Stephanie Jo Kent, CI, PHD
Remember when all of a sudden Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) was everywhere, especially in hospitals? It would be nice to be able to go back in time and design policy and regulation that would have protected the integrity of interpreted communication through the internet. As a profession, sign language interpreting missed that train; it left the station long before appearing on most interpreters’ radar.
This summer another train has left the station and is beginning to pick up speed. It’s the AI train: Artificial Intelligence. If you went to a professional interpreting conference this summer, AI was a hot topic everywhere: including the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI), 1 World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI), the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), 2 and National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA). 3 Sam Sepah from Google gave a plenary speech on uses of AI at the 2023 RID National Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. 4 The audience of community ASL-English interpreters were worried; however, when Sam finally stated his personal opinion that AI probably won’t take our jobs they broke into applause! Sam added a caveat though; not within the next ten years.
AI is already upending spoken language interpreting. The algorithms are good enough between many spoken and written languages that the quality of information transfer is basically as good as humans. A private company was just awarded a U.S. patent for their speech-to-speech translation technology, based on machine learning, which produces “real-time, continuous (simultaneous) translation, and for translating spoken language in a natural way” for 30 languages (KUDO, August 8, 2023).
I am glad I’m a sign language interpreter! But geez, is that just hearing privilege? The reason AI isn’t as much of a threat to our jobs – yet – is because the field of computer vision has not learned how to recognize and ‘read’ signed languages. The disparity in access to communication tools is a tangible measure of how Deaf people and ASL users are systematically disenfranchised. Curiously, this may be about to change! A business partnership in Brazil has announced a “live chat translation tool” from Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) with the aim of enabling hearing people to understand what Deaf people are signing in particular contexts (Mari, 2023).
AI is stimulating evolution in many fields, ours included. Right now, the big questions are if machine interpreting by AI can recognize misunderstanding – and help repair it? Can AI discern important contextual details – and know how and when to include them? Can AI recognize cultural differences – and mediate them? Major journals in the field have already published special issues, such as the August 2023 Multilingual Matters on “ Interpreting and Technology.” An industry research group has produced a report showing use of AI by the top language service providers (LSPs) (Pielmeier, 2023). According to their findings, the first impact of AI is those who do text-to-text translation. Will this affect real-time human captioning? Nine percent of the top LSPs have used AI for interpreting and another nine percent have tested it and been satisfied. Some LSPs have rejected using AI for interpreting (at least for now). This is the point of tension and debate: will AI prove easier, cheaper, and more reliable than human interpreters?
If we, professional interpreters, are going to make the case that we are better and bring advantages that AI cannot, what are the criteria upon which AI interpreting will fail? Immediately the work of Jon Henner (with Octavian Robinson) on “crip linguistics” comes to mind. Will AI be able to handle all the ways that humans use language? Can AI catch and correct misunderstandings? Does AI know when to utilize expansion? Is AI an appropriate choice in any situation, or are there conditions when a human interpreter must be involved? Answers to these questions from signing communities are required to inform us how best to evolve our skills to meet the needs of the future.
Over the summer of 2023, a group of interpreting industry leaders hurried to establish the Interpreting SAFE AI Task Force in time to influence legislation to “regulate AI.” The first AI-oriented legislation is being developed by Senators Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Lindsay Graham (SC), to establish a federal agency to oversee large tech companies (Klar, July 27, 2023). An important lobbying group, the Association of Language Companies (ALC), proactively reached out to include leaders from within the sign language interpreting field. After the open application process ended, a meeting at the 2023 RID National Conference including RID President Ritchie Bryant, CEO Star Grieser, Director of Government Affairs Neal Tucker, and representatives from the Association of Language Companies (ALC) met to go over some background and context (see the Notes from that meeting here.) Members of the Stakeholders Assembly of the SAFEAI Task Force were announced in September including: Star Grieser (RID), Dr. Eileen Forestal (CIT), Erin Sanders-Sigmon (Mano a Mano), Tim Riker (Brown University), Stephanie Jo Kent (Learning Lab for Resiliency®), and M. Cody Francisco (Masterwords). We will need to learn a lot from you, the stakeholders in this profession. Please be alert to opportunities to learn about AI and Interpreting, including invitations for organizational representatives and interested community members to join an AI & Interpreting Advisory Group that will focus on sign language interpreting and AI.
The AI & Interpreting Advisory Group requires a one year commitment to learn about AI and participate in workshops and activities aimed at understanding how AI can help or hurt interpreting processes. Read the Statement of Work here. The task will be to collect evidence, anecdotes and testimonials about both constructive and harmful uses of technology in practices of interpreting. The most likely way we will collect this data is through a survey prepared by the SAFE AI Task Force. Potentially, if we find the right partners, and a rigorous process of informed consent, we may be able to use survey responses as part of a larger sign language corpus to further the research and development of sign language recognition by AI, in an effort to ‘catch up’ with spoken languages.
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1 “Artificial Intelligence (AI): The Benefits and Challenges for Accessibility” (July 28, 2023). Featuring Larry Goldberg, Lily Bond, Jennifer Schuck, Joe Devon, Blake Reid, Sam Sepah, and John Kinstler at TDI: Digital Inclusion for All.
2 “Human-Machine Collaboration in Korea Sign Language Interpreting” (July 12, 2023) by Inkyung Koh; Sign Language machine translation and Deaf Communities: the case for co-creation (July 13, 2023) by Mark Wheatley, Exec Director European Union of the Deaf (EUD); Database and Artificial Intelligence Technology Application System & Service (July 13, 2023) by Geuhwan Ann; Sign Language Avatars: If, When, and How. The User Perspective (July 13, 2023) by Verena Krausneker and Sandra Shuegerl at WFD: “Securing Human Rights in Times of Crisis.”
3 “ChatGPT: The Promising Potentials of Artificial Intelligence for Deaf People” (August 11, 2023) by Bakar Ali and Kemoy Campbell at NBDA: Reconnecting to Thrive Together: Reconnect, Recharge, Thrive!
4 Plenary: The Future of ASL Interpretation: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Human Touch” by Sam Sepah (July 29, 2023) at RID: Are You Ready?!
