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CEO Translation Bureau of Canada
Although the Translation Bureau is keeping a close eye on the impact of large language models, their advent does not change our human-in-the-loop focus. On the contrary, their demonstrated potential for bias and struggle with contextual elements such as cultural and linguistic specificity strengthen our conviction that language professionals are, and will remain, key players in the linguistic services ecosystem.
The challenge is, on the one hand, to ensure that our clients are aware of the edge that language professionals provide, and on the other hand, to ensure that our language professionals have the knowledge and skills they need to successfully navigate this new reality of machine-generated content. In order to meet these challenges, our client relations officers have been actively liaising with our clients, while our professional development experts have been mapping the programs of study available in Canada and discussing potential enhancements with learning institutions.
Linguistic services providers need to fight the popular belief that artificial intelligence has triggered a downward spiral for language professions. Now more than ever, we must focus on marketing and education with not only our clients, but also the future generations of language professionals we desperately need.
I feel that 2024 will be a pivotal year, where the public opinion pendulum will swing back from unbridled LLM and NMT hype towards a more balanced understanding of the potential and limitations of these tools, and a greater appreciation of the instrumental role played by language professionals. I share with many language industry leaders a belief that what seems like an uphill battle will actually turn out to be an uphill trend in demand for our highly skilled workforce.
And I am enthused by the level of cooperation that exists between stakeholders of every niche and nook of the language industry, internationally and here in Canada. The CSA Research Leadership Councils are a prime example of how the industry is pulling together to keep its momentum strong in spite of the challenges. Even internally at the Translation Bureau, our various stripes of professionals are collaborating in an unprecedented way, pulling in the same direction to move us into the new era of AI-assisted linguistic services provision.
As Henry Ford once wisely said, working together is the key to our success, and I am stoked about the feats of cooperation that are in store for the language industry in 2024!