Pro Interpreters vs. AI Challenge: Who Translates Faster and Better? | WIRED — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00artificial intelligence has been
2. 0:02threatening everyone's jobs including
3. 0:04interpreters
4. 0:07inaccurate interpretation can be the
5. 0:09difference between a good or bad nuclear
6. 0:12deal so why are tested a speech
7. 0:14translator called Kudo versus human
8. 0:16interpreters to see which better
9. 0:18transmits all of the necessary elements
10. 0:20for people to understand what they are
11. 0:22hearing including emotion intonation
12. 0:24completeness spontaneity and speed
13. 0:27Liar's jobs to test out if AI is really
14. 0:30better than a human let's begin
15. 0:33test one
16. 0:34here we go we gave Barry and Kudo a 2020
17. 0:37speech from King Felipe of Spain the
18. 0:40speech is about the covid crisis the
19. 0:42subjects will focus on emotion it's
20. 0:45because of the pandemic I parachuted
21. 0:46into this not knowing anything about the
22. 0:49speech when it was given in this speech
23. 0:52what matters more is the emotion and the
24. 0:55ability to connect with the audience
25. 0:57because he's speaking to the citizens of
26. 1:01Spain at a very difficult time when many
27. 1:04have suffered loss are going through a
28. 1:06number of challenges this reminds us of
29. 1:10very deep feelings
30. 1:12at this time many of you are fighting
31. 1:15against the illness and
32. 1:18what it has done in your homes and the
33. 1:21words are just the vehicle to get that
34. 1:24across now let's evaluate the speech
35. 1:26translator
36. 1:28good evening I address you on this
37. 1:30Christmas Eve
38. 1:33when we are living truly exceptional
39. 1:34circumstances due to the pandemic
40. 1:37in terms of content and completeness the
41. 1:40AI did very well the virus has broken
42. 1:42into our lives
43. 1:44bringing suffering sadness or fear
44. 1:46altered our way of life it struggled
45. 1:49with word choice in a number of areas it
46. 1:52referred to an overflow in some
47. 1:55hospitals and also overflow in some of
48. 1:57our Hospitals now what that was
49. 2:00referring to is at that time when
50. 2:02hospitals were overwhelmed when the King
51. 2:06was recognizing the health care workers
52. 2:08for the work that they had done and he
53. 2:12recognized the tremendous physical and
54. 2:16emotional burden that they were carrying
55. 2:19and the AI translated that as the great
56. 2:22emotional charge and physics on their
57. 2:25backs if you know Spanish you can go
58. 2:27back and figure out how it is that the
59. 2:30AI determined to use those words but
60. 2:33obviously that is
61. 2:36borderline nonsensical if you look at
62. 2:40what the speech to speech translation
63. 2:43produced it was by and large
64. 2:46quite accurate however
65. 2:48it's very difficult to get the sense of
66. 2:52what the king is seeking to portray
67. 2:54through the AI in its current state test
68. 2:58two spontaneity we gave Walter and Kudo
69. 3:02a 2021 speech from former Senator and
70. 3:05now current Colombian president Gustavo
71. 3:07Petro the most powerful and
72. 3:09non-productive sectors of this country
73. 3:1120 billion pesos a year so I took the
74. 3:15hour beforehand to look him up look at
75. 3:18some of his videos just listen to the
76. 3:21level of language he employs listen to
77. 3:24his rhythms listen to you know watch his
78. 3:26body language now let's see how the
79. 3:28speech translator did you are Mr
80. 3:31President in office
81. 3:32assist you
82. 3:40in the year of 2019 this Congress
83. 3:43decided to give to the most powerful and
84. 3:44unproductive sectors of the country 20
85. 3:46billion pesos a year the particular
86. 3:48strength of artificial intelligence was
87. 3:50in capturing those terms of art
88. 3:51artificial intelligence captured
89. 3:53president in office or sitting president
90. 3:58Minister of Finance ministro de Hacienda
91. 4:02special drawing rights that's a
92. 4:04consecrated term it's a term that's
93. 4:06enshrined that you can find in any
94. 4:08number of glossaries that's the official
95. 4:10translation and I I miss that official
96. 4:13caucuses as well that the artificial
97. 4:15translation rendered that very clearly
98. 4:18and it pulls those in and did so very
99. 4:20well that's what I felt it was most
100. 4:22effective at and where I felt it had the
101. 4:26most shortcomings was because of the
102. 4:30pauses when Al Pace has a stagnant
103. 4:32economy and an impoverished middle class
104. 4:34what this tax form brings
105. 4:39it is to increase taxes on the
106. 4:42productive company small and medium
107. 4:43fundamentally
108. 4:48absolute contradiction and absurdity the
109. 4:51artificial intelligence creates these
110. 4:53little Islands these little bubbles that
111. 4:56read like complete thoughts but are not
112. 4:58because there's a flow
113. 5:00there's a flow that's coming after the
114. 5:01pause and thanks
115. 5:04to an absolutely aggressive social
116. 5:07policy
117. 5:09making a gift to the bankers and thanks
118. 5:12to an absolutely aggressive social
119. 5:14policy how to issue money to give to
120. 5:16Bankers so the pause is in this
121. 5:19particular speech seem to throw the
122. 5:21artificial intelligence off you have the
123. 5:23vocal inflection increasing taxes on
124. 5:26those who govern Colombia that you know
125. 5:28allows you to understand there's
126. 5:30something else coming I'm not finished
127. 5:32yet unproductive Capital those who don't
128. 5:35work
129. 5:36but
130. 5:38prey on the state on the people and on
131. 5:42nature
132. 5:43thank you sir task 3 we give Barry and
133. 5:47Kudo a 2021 speech from El Salvadorian
134. 5:49president naibukele the speech is highly
135. 5:52crafted prepared and read from a
136. 5:54teleprompter at a high rate of speed we
137. 5:57are going to make use of bandisal I will
138. 5:59tell you that it was a very challenging
139. 6:02experience for me as a professional
140. 6:04interpreter to interpret that speech
141. 6:08accurately and completely what you have
142. 6:11to do is process that information and
143. 6:14extract the ideas to be able to give
144. 6:16your listener something that's usable
145. 6:19for them to be able to follow from that
146. 6:22huge amount or that torrent of words
147. 6:24that's coming at you now let's evaluate
148. 6:27the speech translator
149. 6:29Salvadoran people good morning as you
150. 6:31all know
151. 6:32the world has suffered an increase in
152. 6:33prices when I was able to go back and
153. 6:35listen to the AI interpretation what I
154. 6:40noticed throughout the entire speech is
155. 6:43that it did not miss any of the content
156. 6:49of these Goods increases to match the
157. 6:51supply of new dollars new Euros
158. 6:54therefore that affects World prices
159. 6:59is why we are experiencing a global
160. 7:02inflation that hits the pockets of
161. 7:03everything of all the people in the
162. 7:05world and El Salvador is no exception I
163. 7:08was
164. 7:09taken aback by the artificial
165. 7:13intelligence's ability
166. 7:15to get all of the content and hold on to
167. 7:19it so in terms of completeness it was
168. 7:24very good and better than what I was
169. 7:27able to do at that rate of speed however
170. 7:30it often had mistakes and and challenges
171. 7:35with making the syntax the word choice
172. 7:39and sometimes the grammar in English and
173. 7:41sometimes it would choose words that
174. 7:44weren't really
175. 7:46the most accurate way the way a native
176. 7:49English speaker would say something it
177. 7:52talked about new currency issues this
178. 7:54inflation generated by the incorporation
179. 7:56of new currency issues usually dollars
180. 7:58Euros Yen which was really ambiguous
181. 8:01because it was talking about new
182. 8:03infusions of cash or currency into the
183. 8:06monetary system and people could confuse
184. 8:09issues with problems and think okay
185. 8:10what's the problem with these new
186. 8:12currencies what is happening is that the
187. 8:15process that the professional
188. 8:16interpreter has been doing for as long
189. 8:19as professional interpreters have been
190. 8:20working is to process that information
191. 8:24and then serve it up to the listener
192. 8:27already processed to know this is what's
193. 8:30being talked about so rather than saying
194. 8:31new currency issues I would have said
195. 8:33infusions or injections of more cash
196. 8:36into the monetary system so for a
197. 8:40profession that started with the
198. 8:41Nuremberg trials and continues to be
199. 8:43used for important meetings and
200. 8:45negotiations today okay
201. 8:47when is it appropriate to use an AI
202. 8:49solution I would say an informal
203. 8:51situations
204. 8:53situations where there is not a high
205. 8:57level of consequence for mistakes I
206. 9:00would not trust this
207. 9:02in courtrooms I would not trust this in
208. 9:05the legal system if there is a decision
209. 9:09that has to be made a medical
210. 9:11interaction Asylum cases I don't know
211. 9:15that I would trust it for situations
212. 9:18that require metaphorical language that
213. 9:22don't catch the figurative meaning do I
214. 9:24want to have a high level Diplomat or a
215. 9:27president of my country speaking to
216. 9:30another president through AI to make
217. 9:32important decisions about the future of
218. 9:36literally millions of lives no we need
219. 9:39to look at it we need to examine it we
220. 9:41need to find out how we can use this
221. 9:44constructively and how we can use it
222. 9:47carefully to Aid us and not be afraid of
223. 9:50it because that's no use if we're not
224. 9:52flexible we're eminently in a world
225. 9:55where we need to be flexible and we need
226. 9:58to be open to new ideas and new ways of
227. 10:00doing things it is not a replacement and
228. 10:04you have to understand that and if we're
229. 10:07able to understand the power of the tool
230. 10:09we can respect the tool and use it to
231. 10:13everyone's benefit