Exploring Translation Technology in the 21st Century: The Fate of the Human Translator

This paper sensitises translators on the extent and impact of translation technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on translation activity. The paper highlights and acknowledges the tremendous technological progress made so far by modern translation technology which has improved the translation activity. However, despite the progress made so far, there exist still challenges and shortcomings. There are socio-cultural and ethical problems like taboos, privacy, security, cultural nuances, biases and data privacy related issues which cannot be corrected even with the latest technology gadgets. The paper is a systematic review that provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of translation technology, focusing on Machine Translation (MT) and AI using comparative, interpretative and analytics methods. This paper observes that the human translators touch is still needed and cannot be replaced with any modern translation technology gadgets. The research objectives are to: evaluate the impact of MT and AI on the quality and efficiency of translation processes, assess the evolving role of human translators in the age of AI and MT and investigate the ethical implications of using MT and AI in translation, particularly concerning issues of data privacy, intellectual property, and cultural sensitivity. Consequently, the paper recommends an effective combination of human and machine translation technology and advocates the sound mastery of the workings of modern translation technology and AI gadgets by human translators. Only this, will result in accurate, fluent and meaningful translations and keep the human translators’ job intact.