Year 2019. Geneva. At a time when technology still seemed distant from the profession of interpreting, I was a young scholar who dared to advocate for a paradigm shift in interpreting. In a panel on interpreter training, I reminded the interpreting academic community of its duty to prepare students and professionals not just for today or tomorrow, but for the day after tomorrow, not only by focusing on emerging tools like remote interpreting and computer-assisted technologies, but by looking ahead to the most transformative force on the horizon: artificial intelligence, and its most impactful application, machine interpreting.
My words were met with a mix of indifference, skepticism and aversion, as it is natural to happen when someone anticipates changes.
Only six years later, I am grateful to witness a shift. The community is changing its attitude, broadening its perspective, and preparing to embrace, and challenge, the coming transformations. More and more scholars and initiatives in Interpreting Studies are now approaching these topics for what they truly are: groundbreaking developments that must be studied, analyzed and governed through the lenses of communication and cognition.
Obviously, many still dismiss this as utopia (or dystopia). Many professionals believe that it’s impossible to improve speech‑translation quality to the level of an average human translator. Others think that insiders—experts, researchers, and the like—who predict lightning‑fast advances are either crazy or pursuing some hidden agenda, as if merely anticipating the future could make it happen.
Nonetheless, some—even within translation academia—are taking this shift seriously, and rightly so. Those who can anticipate the future are the ones best equipped to shape it. And today, as technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, that vision feels more relevant than ever. Now is the time to keep pushing boundaries, and to ensure that our training programs are as forward-thinking as the industries they aim to serve.