With AI translation tools so powerful, what is the point of learning a language?

By: Ana Moirano

In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), foreign language learning can seem like it’s becoming obsolete. Why invest the time and effort to learn another language when technology can do it for you?

There are now translation tools to understand song lyrics, translate websites and to enable automated captions when watching foreign videos and movies. Our phones can instantly translate spoken words.

At the same time, foreign language programs are closing at New Zealand and Australian universities.

But while technology can translate messages, it misses an important component of human communication—the cultural nuances behind the words.

So, while AI translation might bridge language barriers and promote communication because of its accessibility, it’s important to be clear about the benefits and challenges it presents. Merely relying on technology to translate between languages will ultimately lead to misunderstandings and a less rich human experience.

Source:https://phys.b-cdn.net/tmpl/v6/img/logo-header.png

Full article: https://phys.org/news/2024-10-ai-tools-powerful-language.html

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With AI translation tools so powerful, what is the point of learning a language?
Daryo
Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:32
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Shortest version Oct 25

Why bother learning to walk if there's a "smart car" to drive you around all the time?

Maria Laura Curzi
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Levan Namoradze
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
Christine Andersen
yamunakurva (X)
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
 
Maria Laura Curzi
Maria Laura Curzi
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Laziness Oct 25

It seems laziness has discovered a perfect companion in AI. Now, people who tend to be lazy can opt out of almost any activity they want, since Artificial Intelligence will do it for them. LOL.icon_rolleyes.gif

neilmac
Maria Rosa Fontana
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AllegroTrans
AllegroTrans  Identity Verified
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What's the point? Oct 25

a) I prefer to be a human being
b) I do not have an AI translation tool fitted to my brain, nor do I ever want to


Rachel Waddington
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Daryo
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Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise
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Yes, please Oct 26

If the majority of people would start to think like that, that would be excellent news to language service professionals. They would ultimately receive more work than ever.

 
Tony Keily
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Because... Oct 26

... I'm not an AI translation tool.

Maria Laura Curzi
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Daryo
Daryo
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Not exactly Oct 26

Lieven Malaise wrote:

If the majority of people would start to think like that, that would be excellent news to language service professionals. They would ultimately receive more work than ever.


Not exactly. More likely to be the other way round.

Those people who really believe that "AI translation tools are so powerful" would ignore humans and rely on bots only. The only to profit would be few huge AI companies.


Jorge Payan
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Wilsonn Perez Reyes
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Not exactly... Oct 26

Daryo wrote:

Why bother learning to walk if there's a "smart car" to drive you around all the time?


Elon Musk Admits That Teslas With "Self-Driving" Computers May Never Be Able to Actually Self-Drive

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has finally said the quiet part out loud: he's worried that the vast majority of Tesla vehicles currently on the road won't be able to actually drive themselves after all, even if buyers paid extra for hardware that he claimed at the time would allow them to do just that.
https://futurism.com/elon-musk-realizes-all-teslas-self-driving-computers


Kaspars Melkis
Rachel Waddington
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neilmac
 
Kaspars Melkis
Kaspars Melkis  Identity Verified
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Tesla's promises were misleading Oct 26

Not sure about ever, but it was definitely the case that Tesla's promise to provide self-driving already in 2020 were not kept. These things turned out more difficult than initially thought. We can have self-driving trains (because they simply drive on rails) or maybe cars is controlled conditions. But in many cases these self-driving systems fail. I don't expect them to be fully self-driving soon. At least not in all circumstances I actually use a car. Although it could help with driving on mot... See more
Not sure about ever, but it was definitely the case that Tesla's promise to provide self-driving already in 2020 were not kept. These things turned out more difficult than initially thought. We can have self-driving trains (because they simply drive on rails) or maybe cars is controlled conditions. But in many cases these self-driving systems fail. I don't expect them to be fully self-driving soon. At least not in all circumstances I actually use a car. Although it could help with driving on motorways etc.

The same applied to automated translations. In some circumstances they work great. After all, the quality of the translation of a birth certificate doesn't matter. It is just a name and date of birth and the place. As long as you can transcribe them, you could use google translate for the same effect. But many texts are super important and misinterpretation of them could cost millions.
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P.L.F. Persio
 
Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise
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Not the point Oct 27

Daryo wrote:
Those people who really believe that "AI translation tools are so powerful" would ignore humans and rely on bots only.


Yes, they will do that until they have to deal with the bad consequences of mistranslations.


neilmac
 
Christine Andersen
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What is the point of communicating? Oct 27

Why grow flowers in your garden?
Artificial flowers are just fine. They don´t wither and die, and they don´t need watering.

Why learn to play a musical instrument? All that effort with practising, and it sounds terrible for weeks, until you get the hang of it.
Why play sports or learn to paint, or any other art? For most of us they are never any practical use, just ways of passing the time. And they are often expensive!

Learning a language has a value in its ow
... See more
Why grow flowers in your garden?
Artificial flowers are just fine. They don´t wither and die, and they don´t need watering.

Why learn to play a musical instrument? All that effort with practising, and it sounds terrible for weeks, until you get the hang of it.
Why play sports or learn to paint, or any other art? For most of us they are never any practical use, just ways of passing the time. And they are often expensive!

Learning a language has a value in its own right. It opens up a whole new perspective on the world, and it is said that you do not really understand your own language until you learn another. Surely most of us on this site know the delight of finding new words, new expressions, discovering idioms and culture in all our languages? Of course it is hard work, but that special satisfaction is addictive!

Why learn about other people and other cultures at all - can´t the bots just take over?

I have just followed a workshop online about AI and translation. When someone has to take responsibility for a translation, humans are indispensable. AI cannot be relied on - it never says ´I don´t know´!
It cannot distinguish between truth and error. It follows patterns and finds a likely scenario, but it cannot distinguish between likelihood and certainty. It will always find a solution - but cannot guarantee that it will be the right solution in a specific context.

It is NOT creative. It is not spontaneous - if you want to have a fluent conversation, make jokes, help people, negotiate serious business or whatever, you can´t wait for AI to interpret all the time. You never get eye-to-eye understanding, claps or smiles from AI.

It may be great as a tool, but it cannot replace humans. So I am still battling with a new language - so I can talk to my grandchild myself, without a bot between us!
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Lieven Malaise
Maria Laura Curzi
tabor
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
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expressisverbis
Michele Fauble
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
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My cats knew it all along :-) Oct 27

With my total of 8 rescues over 25+ years I tried to experiment with a few "self-cleaning" litterboxes, fancy and quite expensive. Oh well, the only real self-cleaning things I ended up with were those same catsicon_smile.gif. Back to basics.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Michele Fauble
Daryo
P.L.F. Persio
Reea-Silvia Podeanu
 
Andrzej Ziomek
Andrzej Ziomek
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Whenever... Oct 28

I'm starting a game on a chess platform, for some strange (or not so strange) reason I choose to play against a human, not the computer.

P.L.F. Persio
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
Portugal
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The point is... Oct 28

Because bots don't have feelings, can't create connections and empathy; it can't fully capture cultural contexts and nuances; it's not precise when dealing with specialised language, such as legal or technical terms, and lastly because direct human communication is essential and it always be, at least for me.

[Edited at 2024-10-28 16:03 GMT]


Michele Fauble
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Lingua 5B
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Consequent question Oct 28

So, now we shouldn’t even teach kids how to speak either, as they have computers?

Psychiatrists say there is epidemics of autism-like behavior (not autism, but autism-like) due to too much screen time, no speaking and the absence of natural stimulation in a natural environment.

Yeah, what’s the point.


 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
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It's not as unimaginable as we would like to be Oct 28

Lingua 5B wrote:

So, now we shouldn’t even teach kids how to speak either, as they have computers?


4th graders in the US are given tablets and parents are notified that kids will no longer be required to do any handwriting...


 
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