Abstract:
The insertion of technology in simultaneous interpreting has recently
raised much controversy among, inter alia, practitioners, researchers and
end-service users. Precipitous developments especially in Artificial
Intelligence can affect not only the façade but also the core of the
profession. The world's feverish propaganda for the inevitability of
technological change together with the epidemic panic from machine IQ
to reach 10,000 (while Einstein's was 150) have given impetus for this
research to investigate the past and present of using technology in
simultaneous interpreting and explore the challenges and opportunities
for collaboration between the human and the machine from a
multidisciplinary perspective. It is a qualitative study which uses
description, comparison, and interpretation as research methods to
analyse how the human and the machine react to the process of
simultaneous interpreting and assess their performance and role. It
concludes that there is not much prospect that machines can replace the
human interpreter at least in the near future, and that technological
developments should be directed to serve the field and human interpreters
in a constructive way.
