In today’s interconnected world, language barriers are becoming increasingly significant as businesses and individuals seek to collaborate globally. The natural way to communicate isn’t through reading or writing; it’s through seeing, listening, and talking. Multi-Modal AI, which integrates text, audio, and visuals, is revolutionising real-time translation and interpretation. This technology can empower society by making knowledge and resources accessible to all, regardless of education or literacy. This article explores how multi-modal AI is revolutionising real-time translation, its impact on overcoming traditional language barriers, and the challenges it faces.

Introduction to Multi-Modal AI

Multi-modal AI combines diverse types of data inputs like text, images, and sounds to generate responses or translations. Unlike traditional AI models that rely solely on one form of input, multi-modal systems leverage multiple data types, allowing for more nuanced and accurate translations. Multi-modal AI not only helps with interpreting spoken languages, but also with contextualising the non-verbal cues such as body language or environmental factors. The convergence of these different data types makes multi-modal AI significantly more effective in fields like language translation, medical diagnosis, autonomous driving, and even creative arts.

According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global AI market is expected to grow from $150 billion in 2023 to $1.59 trillion by 2030, and multi-modal AI will account for a significant portion of this growth due to its diverse applications.

Source: Enterpreneur

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The six-title shortlist for this year’s Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize highlights classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction translated from Japanese into English.

The shortlist for the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize was announced on December 2, highlighting classic and contemporary fiction and nonfiction translated from Japanese into English. The prize, launched last year by the foundation in association with the Society of Authors, considers books published in Britain between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. The results are due to be announced on February 12, 2025; the translator of the winning title will receive £3,000 and the runner-up £1,000.

Last year’s winning translator Alison Watts appears on the shortlist again for What You Are Looking for Is in the Library, translated from a novel by Aoyama Michiko about a librarian who transforms a series of visitors’ lives through her perfectly pitched book recommendations. The 2023 runner-up David Boyd is also shortlisted in 2024, again for a translation of a book by Oyamada Hiroko. The Factory zooms in on the absurdity of the workplace via three characters with mundane jobs in a surreal setting.

Source: nippon.com

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A Japanese publishing startup is using Anthropic’s flagship large language model Claude to help translate manga into English, allowing the company to churn out a new title for a Western audience in just a few days rather than the two to three months it would take a team of humans.

Orange was founded by Shoko Ugaki, a manga superfan who (according to VP of product Rei Kuroda) has some 10,000 titles in his house. The company now wants more people outside Japan to have access to them. “I hope we can do a great job for our readers,” says Kuroda.

Orange’s Japanese-to-English translation of Neko Oji: Salaryman reincarnated as a kitten! IMAGES COURTESY ORANGE / YAJIMA

But not everyone is happy. The firm has angered a number of manga fans who see the use of AI to translate a celebrated and traditional art form as one more front in the ongoing battle between tech companies and artists. “However well-intentioned this company might be, I find the idea of using AI to translate manga distasteful and insulting,” says Casey Brienza, a sociologist and author of the book Manga in America: Transnational Book Publishing and the Domestication of Japanese Comics.

Source: MIT Technology Review

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There will now be 7 languages besides the official Italian, for the Pope’s reflections and the mediation on a biblical text.

“Next week will begin the translation into Chinese, here at the audience,” Pope Francis announced with visible joy, at the general audience on November 27, 2024. The first translation into Chinese will therefore take place on December 4, the beginning of the liturgical year and first Sunday of Advent.

Every Wednesday, the Pontiff meditates on a biblical text during the general audience, an event open to the public. The audience takes place either in St. Peter’s Square or in the Paul VI Hall inside the Vatican.

Before he speaks, a short extract from the Bible is read out in several languages. After his catechesis, a summary of his speech and the translation of his messages addressed to the faithful in a specific language are also translated.

These translations, carried out by Vatican employees, are currently available in six languages in addition to the official Italian: French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Arabic.

Arabic is the latest language to be permanently added by Benedict XVI on October 10, 2012.

Occasionally, languages may be added in response to a special occasion, such as the presence of a group of pilgrims speaking another language – Ukrainian and Slovakian translations were heard recently.

Source: Aleteia

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Adriana Hunter has translated over one hundred books and won multiple awards

Adriana Hunter is one of the most experienced British translators of French books with more than a hundred under her belt. She is the recipient of multiple literary prizes and awards. 

She has been the official translator for the English version of the Asterix series of graphic novels since 2018, when she replaced Anthea Bell, and has worked on the last four of them. 

She loves ‘juggling with words’ and has been honing her craft to bridge the gap between both languages.

This can mean anything from unravelling the intimacy of Amélie Nothomb’s bestselling novels or conveying the play-on-words and puns in Asterix. 

The Connexion interviewed Cédric Sapin-Defour for Son odeur après la pluie, an unexpected bestseller telling the intimate relationship between him and Ubac, his Bernese mountain dog, who died in 2017.

He was asked for his opinion about whoever would be chosen for the English translation. 

He was not sure how that person would accomplish what he considered an almost impossible task. 

Source: The Connexion

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Vasco Pedro, CEO of the Lisbon-based startup Unbabel, delivered a provocative forecast at the Web Summit in Lisbon when he said human translators may no longer be needed within three years. The statement came in parallel with the launch of Widn.AI, Unbabel’s new AI-powered translation service built on its proprietary large language model, Tower. Capable of handling translations in 32 languages, Widn.AI represents a significant shift from the company’s earlier hybrid model, which paired AI technology with human editors.

“The advantage humans have in translation is razor-thin,” Pedro said, asserting that AI has reached a stage where it can handle all but the most complex translation tasks. This advancement aligns with a broader trend of generative AI boosting enterprise innovation, as companies increasingly leverage AI for tasks once deemed exclusively human.

Implications for Jobs and Industry

Unbabel’s innovation comes as AI’s potential to replace jobs is sparking heated debates. While Unbabel foresees growth fueled by a surge in translated content, Pedro admitted that the revenue per word is likely to drop. This mirrors broader predictions about AI’s disruptive potential, such as Vinod Khosla’s claim that AI could perform 80 percent of tasks across 80 percent of jobs.

Source: eWeek

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Norway is launching a new translation price that is one of the most highly endowed of its kind in Europe, in an attempt to boost a “partly invisible” and often poorly paid profession increasingly under threat from machine translation.

Named after the Norwegian novelist and playwright who won the 2023 Nobel prize in literature, Jon Fosse, the Fosse prize for translators will reward one author every year with 500,000 NOK (£36,000) for making “a particularly significant contribution to translating Norwegian literature into another language”.

Funded by the Norwegian government and managed by the National Library in Oslo, the prize is exclusive to those translating from Bokmål and Nynorsk, the two official written standards of the Norwegian language.

“For a small language like Norwegian, the work of dedicated translators are crucial,” said Aslak Sira Myhre, director of the National Library of Norway. “It is a strenuous, creative and partly invisible work that brings literature to people and cultures closer together.”

Source: The Guardian

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Lin King ’22 has won the 2024 National Book Award in Translated Literature for her work translating Yáng Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue to English from its original Mandarin Chinese.  

Competing in an original pool of 141 entrants in the category, King’s translation was named to the longlist in September, a finalist in October, and finally the winner on Wednesday night at the 75th National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

The novel follows the unlikely relationship of two women in 1930s Taiwan, a Japanese writer and her Taiwanese interpreter, as they tour the island nation under Japanese rule. The Translated Literature prize is particularly fitting for the book’s exploration of language, culture, and interpretation.

King accepted the award with Shuang-zi, who delivered remarks in Mandarin, which King then translated for the audience. “Some people ask me why I write about things from a hundred years ago,” King translated.  “I always tell them, writing about the past is a means of moving toward the future.

“More than a century ago, some Taiwanese people began making the assertion, ‘Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese,’” she continued. “Today, many Taiwanese continue to assert this, but now we are addressing it to a different audience. Before, we were saying it to the Japanese. Now, we are saying it to the Chinese.”

Source: Columbia University School of the Arts

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On November 14, 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced an updated version of a previous agreement that covers the localization of video game projects produced in a non-English language.

With approximately 160,000 members, SAG-AFTRA calls itself the “world’s largest union representing performers and broadcasters.” The union also represents voiceover artists, including those who provide dubbing. 

As comics and gaming website Bleeding Cool reported, the new Independent Interactive Localization Agreement is essentially an updated version of the base terms from the union’s Tiered Budget Independent Interactive Media Agreement, plus AI protections.

The new agreement is signed on a project-by-project basis by employers whose project was originally scripted in a language other than English, and whose intellectual property owner is based outside of the United States.

“Many brilliant, beloved games come to market in the U.S. from other countries, projects which need highly skilled localizing performers,” Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh was quoted as saying in the press release. Elmaleh added that “[m]any such companies have already signed Interim Localization Agreements”. 

Source: Slator

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On June 25, 2024, as part of the project “The Little Prince at the Bedside of the World’s Languages”, the 600th translation of this masterpiece was presented to the National Library of Panama, in Dulegaya, the language of the Indigenous Guna people of Northeastern Panama and Colombia. This event reinforces the role of the Little Prince as a universal work that unites peoples and contributes to the preservation of endangered languages.

Since its first publication in 1943 in New York, this philosophical tale, illustrated by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, has touched readers of all generations and cultures, offering a universal message of love, kindness, and humanity.

Today, with many languages on the brink of extinction, The Little Prince uniquely preserves languages and transmits cultures. Thanks to the passion of translators, this work has been translated into rare languages and endangered dialects, thus contributing to the preservation of the world’s linguistic heritage.

The 600th translation confirms the cultural and social impact of the Little Prince, which transcends borders and becomes a link between peoples. This story is more than a story: it is a celebration of cultural diversity. 1,500 copies of this Dulegaya edition, entitled Sagla Massi Bibbi, were printed in the spring of 2024 by the Panamanian publishing house El Hombre de la Mancha. They will be distributed in schools and libraries in the Guna Yala region as of 2025.

Source: Le Petit Prince

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