Advances in the world of AI move fast. In response, on 29 May 2023, presidents of FIT member associations had an initial meeting organised by Max de Brouwer of the Chambre belge des traducteurs et interprètes (CBTI-BKVT) to discuss recent developments and how associations could and should respond.
While attendees’ viewpoints ranged, they generally agreed that, with our years of experience integrating technology into our work, our profession is well placed to share information and knowledge to advocate, educate, and guide practitioners and to develop best practices. The overall initial response was one of positive curiosity about what the future holds.
While none of us has a crystal ball, we are confident that we can both harness AI to our advantage and advocate for our best interests. Those present agreed to continue the discussion via working groups examining relevant issues, such as ethics, best practices, intellectual property, and the impacts of AI on machine translation and remote interpreting technologies. The results of these discussions will be shared widely, including in future issues of Translatio.
Alison Rodriguez, FIT President