DiSCourse Seminar with Katharina Walter
3 May 2024, 12:00 (CEST), hybrid
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, 1st floor, Open Space Area or Big Blue Button
DiSCourse - The Digital Science Seminar Series on
Sustainable Use of AI in Translation: A Linguist's Perspective
My presentation examines what a sustainable interaction between humans and machines in translation might look like in the age of AI. Apart from potential ethical and legal questions around copyright, this presentation also addresses the possibilities and limitations of sustainable human-machine interaction regarding the quality of translation output. Recent research shows that it is not only irresponsible to use AI-based applications such as DeepL or ChatGPT without human supervision in high-risk situations, which may occur, for instance, in the healthcare sector. In literary translation, my main area of focus, we also have at least an ethical obligation towards original authors and their potential readership to produce accurate and high-quality translations. As any text generated or translated with AI is normally also used to train AI tools, keeping humans in charge is the only way to counteract an otherwise inevitable degeneration in the overall quality of our linguistic environment.
Katharina Walter, University of Innsbruck, Department of Translation Studies
Katharina Walter holds a concurrent MA in English and Spanish from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and an MA in Women’s Studies as well as a PhD in English from the University of Galway, Ireland. In 2012, she joined the Department of Translation Studies at the University of Innsbruck, where she teaches English language, cultural studies, translation and creative writing. In 2022, Walter added artificial intelligence in translation to her previous key research areas of Irish literature and literary translation. Together with Marco Agnetta, she organized a conference on “Creativity and Translation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” at the University of Innsbruck in January 2024 (see https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/congress/kreativitaet-translation-ki/).