Metaglossia: The Translation World

"German AI startup DeepL is pursuing a market-leading editing tool to take its translation service to the next level.

Jarek Kutylowski, founder and CEO of DeepL, speaks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul. [DEEPL]

[INTERVIEW] 
 
DeepL eyes an AI-powered communication tool that is not only precise in its own right, but is able to ask questions to the user for higher quality output.
 
The German startup, best-known for its translation service, recently launched a sentence-editing service in Korea powered by its own large language model (LLM), currently available in English and German.
 

 

"[What I ultimately aim for is] a personal language assistant," said Jarek Kutylowski, founder and CEO of DeepL in a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily.
 
"It will serve as both a translator and editor that is super proficient with language. It will ask questions when things aren't clear, like an editor [at a news publication] who corrects us and gives feedback so that we can learn."
 
DeepL's translation service stands out among similar services provided by the likes of goliaths such as Google and Microsoft by scoring higher points in multiple tests by various agencies in the translation or publication sectors.
 
In a test conducted by DeepL with a number of external professional translators, the company's tech was preferred over Google's 3.9 times for English to Korean translations, the company said.
 
The startup, founded in 2017, launched the translation service in Korea last year.
 
A year into doing business here, Kutylowski sees more potential in the country. 
 
"Korean language is very complicated, which is very far away from Western languages. So the gap between English and Korean is obviously large and therefore there's more potential for us to close that gap," he said.
 
"What we are seeing specifically to Korea, also, is this really strong outward-facing economy that relies heavily on external markets. It also has strong research and development, particularly in electronics and therefore has a strong need on the academic side to be very connected to the world."
 
Koreans' tendency to speak English at a high level compared to others doesn't come as a risk to the CEO.
 
"Regardless of how people already speak certain language very well, there is just a need for quicker way to write something," he said.
 
"And for business purposes you need particular set of skills and vocabularies."
 
DeepL's dive into sentence editing derived from the pattern of how its customers used its existing translation service.
 
"We saw a lot of people writing in English, translate for example into Korea and then translating back into English because it helped them improve the text," he said.
 
"We thought, 'O.K. then maybe we can do a better tool for that.'"
 
Another reason for expanding into editing was due to its enterprise clients, DeepL's primary consumer base.
 
"Enterprise clients said they have a lot of communication problems within the company which doesn't have to do with foreign languages and asked us to help with our technology."
 
In order to offer an editing tool that can change the style and tone according to user preference, DeepL developed its own LLM using Nvidia's H100 processors.
 
Right now, the LLM model doesn't interfere in the translation service, which relies on a smaller algorithm, according to the company.
 
Ultimately, however, the CEO believes its array of services will pick and choose which algorithm or language model it will utilize.
 
"When the AI for translation notices that it lacks some data to create a good translation that something is ambiguous, it will ask a user for example, 'What do you mean by that?'," he said.
 
"It can have this kind of interactive dialogue with the user and with the user input, it will be improving the translation even further."
 
DeepL plans to expand the translation service to spoken language in the near future as well. Whether it will be with an external partner or not cannot be confirmed as of now, according to Kutylowski.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]"

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-05-04/business/industry/DeepL-CEO-envisions-an-interactive-AI-assistant-that-can-help-with-your-language/2039400

 

"We can hold surprisingly deep conversations across languages using simple apps on our phones. But even as these apps get a fresh boost from AI, they can still lead to some awkward moments.

 

TODAY’S LANGUAGE TRANSLATION apps are like self-driving cars: incredibly useful, promising, nearing maturity, and almost entirely powered by machines. It's astonishing that the technology even exists.

Even so, machine translation is still clunky at times, if not awkward.

Consider a recent conversation I had with my neighbor, Andre, who immigrated from Russia last year. Speaking little to no English, Andre is navigating the American Dream almost entirely through Google Translate, the most popular speech-to-speech translation app, first launched 10 years ago.

 

Through his phone, Andrew and I can hold surprisingly deep conversations about where he’s from, how he thinks, how we can help each other, and what he hopes for. But on more than one occasion, Google Translate failed to communicate what Andre was trying to express, which forced us both to shrug and smile through the breakdown.

 

As computers get smarter, however, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others hope to fully remove the language barrier Andre and I shared that day. But it’ll take faster neural machine learning for that to happen, which “might be a few years out,” one developer I spoke to admitted.

 

Not that the wait matters. In fact, many consumers are surprised to learn just how good today’s translation apps already are. For example, this video shows three Microsoft Researchers using the company's live translation software to hold a conversation across multiple languages. The video is seven years old. But when I showed it to some friends, they reacted as if they'd seen the future.

“The technology surrounding translation has come a long way in a very short time,” says Erica Richter, a spokesperson for DeepL, an award-winning machine-translation service that licenses its technology to Zendesk, Coursera, Hitachi, and other businesses. “But this hasn’t happened in parallel with consumer awareness.”

 

 

I am a case in point. Although I’ve written about technology for nearly 20 years, I had no idea how deft Google Translate, Apple Translate, Microsoft Translator, and Amazon Alexa were until I started researching this story after my fateful encounter with Andre. The technology still isn’t capable of instant translation like you expect from a live human translator. But the turn-based speech-to-speech, text-to-speech, or photo-to-text translation is incredibly powerful.

And it’s getting better by the year. “Translate is one of the products we built that’s entirely using artificial intelligence,” a Google spokesperson says. “Since launching Google’s Neural Machine in 2016, we’ve seen the largest improvements in accuracy to translate entire sentences rather than just phrases.”

At the same time, half of the six apps I tried for this story sometimes botch even basic greetings. For instance, when I asked Siri and Microsoft Translator to convert “Olá, tudo bem?” from Portuguese to English, both correctly replied, “Hi, how are you?” Google Translate and Amazon Alexa, on the other hand, returned a more literal and awkward, “Hi, everything is fine?” or “Hi, is everything OK?” Not a total fail. But enough nuance to cause hesitancy or confusion on the part of the listener.

 

In other words, translation technology is similar to the impressive but often clumsy writing that ChatGPT churns out. It works. It’s encouraging. It’s a sign of the times. But the result often feels inhuman, if not disorienting.

It’s still good enough to change the world, though. “We process over a billion translations every day on Translate,” says the same Google rep. “And we’ve recently launched more AI-powered features to provide contextual awareness, including the ability to translate images with Lens, which enables you to search what you see with your camera app.”

For its part, Microsoft, which includes a helpful split screen for people facing each other on its highly rated translation app, boasts similar numbers. “We now have thousands of businesses using our technology to do batch, real-time, and document translation across 141 languages, as well as millions of active users taking advantage of live conversation through Microsoft Translator,” says Marco Casalaina, VP of product for Microsoft’s Azure AI.

 

When it comes to machine translation, there are basically two toolkits for converting tongues: small language models, like the open-source kind Microsoft uses “to be nimble, iterate faster, and scale effectively on important user devices,” and large language models, like the proprietary kind DeepL sells to 100,000 customers.

Some say the latter approach is more accurate and faster, but there are trade-offs: fewer supported languages (only a quarter of the 140 total for small language models) and no offline access, chief among them. But as DeepL’s Richter spins it, “We don’t offer offline translation, since end devices don’t provide the quality we want when working in the cloud.”

What’s next, then, for translation apps? Big Tech is mum for now.

"We don't speculate,” says a tight-lipped publicist from Apple, which first introduced its Siri-powered Translation app in 2020. “Soon, we will expand our web service to give users more options for translating image-based content, regardless of how you search for it,” says Google’s rep. For its part, DeepL is developing significant speech improvements “launching later this year.”

But none of this would even be possible without artificial intelligence, according to every developer I spoke to. “As AI continues to unlock new translation possibilities, we will remove the remaining language barriers,” says Microsoft’s Casalaina. “The tech just needs a few years to evolve,” adds DeepL’s Richter.

As my sometimes clumsy exchanges with Andre prove, today’s translation technology is mostly awesome but still confusing at times. Given that machines have been “speaking” for only 10 to 20 years, however, it’s hard to believe how good they’ve become at understanding and translating what our species has been doing for 200,000 years.

It might not be miraculous, but it’s pretty close.

Capisce?"

#metaglossia_mundus

Enhancing Cross-Linguistic Image Caption Generation with Indian Multilingual Voice Interfaces using Deep Learning Techniques

By

Vijay A Sangolgi 1, Mithun B Patil 1, Shubham S Vidap 1, Satyam S Doijode 1, Swayam Y Mulmane 1, Aditya S Vadaje 1

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2024.03.244Get rights and content

Under a Creative Commons license

"Abstract

The Multilingual Voice-Based Image Caption Generator (MVBICG) is a versatile tool with numerous applications spanning communications, culture preservation, business, and technology, making it indispensable in the interconnected world. The task of image caption generation combines computer vision and NLP (natural language processing) concepts, enabling the system to understand the details or complexities of the image context and describe them in natural language. Image descriptions serve as an invaluable solution for visually impaired individuals. The MVBICG system is designed to provide real-time image descriptions in the form of voice in multiple languages as per user requirements. With the use of an MVBICG, the descriptions can be obtained as a voice output in different languages. Converting a voice into multiple languages with the help of the Google Translate API is often referred to as “multilingual voice conversion” or “multilingual speech synthesis." It leverages the latest advancements in deep learning, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for image feature extraction and recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with attention mechanisms for natural language generation. In the future, image processing is expected to take center stage as a critical research domain primarily dedicated to the preservation and protection of human lives. The MVBICG demonstrates remarkable performance with BLEU scores of 0.483601 for BLEU-1 and 0.320112 for BLEU-2, indicating its proficiency in generating precise and contextually relevant image captions. These scores further underscore its value in bridging language barriers and enhancing accessibility, highlighting its potential for broader societal impact. Additionally, the system's training progress is illustrated by a loss plot, showing the convergence of the model over time. As image processing continues to advance, the MVBICG emerges as a pivotal research domain, focusing on the preservation and safeguarding of human lives through advanced technologies.

Keywords

Multilingual Voice-Based Image Caption Generator (MVBICG)

Computer Vision

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Google Translate-Application Programming Interface(API)

Deep Learning"

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050924006033

"Having long battled the creeping use of English in advertising, music and film, French MPs have declared a new struggle: keeping their home Olympics this year free from anglicisms.

Issued on: 03/05/2024 - 10:15

3 min

 

In a resolution adopted on Thursday, the lower house of parliament urged organisers of the 2024 Paris Games, as well as athletes, trainers and journalists to use French as much as possible.

Annie Genevard, the conservative sponsor of the resolution, expressed alarm to fellow MPs that "the Olympic Games reflect the loss of influence of our language."

She recalled the much-criticised slogan used for Paris' original bid for the Games – "Made for Sharing" – as well as other recent government-backed campaigns to promote the country such as "Choose France" or "Made in France."

Even the French rugby team had "Rugby World Cup" inscribed on their jerseys during the competition in France last year instead of "La Coupe du Monde de rugby."

"All of these examples demonstrate that the fight for the French language ... is never finished, even in the most official spheres," Genevard added.

Read moreParis rubbish collectors threaten Olympics strike over 'excessive workload'

The march of English globally has long infuriated French governments who have sought to protect the purity of their language at home while promoting its use abroad.

The country has an institution – the Académie Française – which has produced state-sanctioned dictionaries for three centuries that document and approve new terms or expressions, often translations of commonly used English words.

"Let's hope that 'planche a roulettes' replaces skateboard and 'rouleau du cap' point break (a surfing term), but I have my doubts," added Genevard.

Language row

French lawmakers passed landmark legislation 30 years ago designed to protect French – the 1994 Toubon Law – which made the language mandatory for advertising, product-labelling, and public announcements.

It also stipulated that radio stations had to play a minimum of 40 percent of French-language songs.

 

But the cultural influence of English, increased latterly by American streaming platforms such as Netflix, means French is constantly infiltrated by new terms, including in the sporting realm.

"You can't overlook the fact that many global sports events that are broadcast globally have chosen to use English for their communication, in their titles, slogans and advertising," Culture Minister Rachida Dati told parliament.

Thursday's resolution – backed by the ruling centrists and right-wingers but opposed by the left – was non-binding, she stressed.

Instructions for foreign visitors during the Olympics from July 26 to August 11 and Paralympics from August 28 to September 8 would be provided in English as well as other languages, she added.

The Paris Games have already been embroiled in a row about language after rumours that Franco-Malian R&B star Aya Nakamura was set to sing during the opening ceremony on July 26.

Read moreRacist attacks on pop star Aya Nakamura test France’s ability to shine at Paris Olympics

The mega-star, the most streamed French artist in the world, mixes French, Arabic and words from West African dialects in her songs such as "Djadja".

She was accused of "vulgarity" and mangling the French language by far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a series of highly personal attacks that were denounced as racist by Dati at the time.

"France is not and will never be 'Djadja'," far-right MP Julien Odoul said on Thursday.

Historic dominance

The dominance of English at the Olympics is particularly galling from a French perspective given that the modern Games were the invention of a French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin, in the late 19th century.

French was the lingua franca of the first editions and remains one of the official languages of de Coubertin's successors at the International Olympic Committee, which is headed by former German fencer Thomas Bach.

Bach's French is passable, but he prefers to speak to foreign journalists in English.

The resolution by French MPs might also resonate at the headquarters of the Paris 2024 organising committee where many officials, including chief executive Tony Estanguet, regularly pepper their French with anglicisms.

He has decried "le JO-bashing" – criticism of the Olympics – and sometimes uses the English "challenges" rather than the French "defis".

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When the committee's communications director proposed "un QnA" to journalists at a recent press conference, she was upbraided by an outraged French journalist.

"We have a French term for this: questions-reponses," he said.

(AFP)"

#metaglossia_mundus

"PARIS, May 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 scholars from China and France gathered in Paris on Friday for a cross-cultural dialogue at a symposium aiming to deepen exchanges between different civilizations.

The symposium, themed "Exchanges and Mutual Learning between the Chinese and French Civilizations: Review and Outlook" was jointly organized by the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Paris-based National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco).

In his opening speech, CASS President Gao Xiang said that strengthening mutual learning between Chinese and French civilizations and enriching cultural exchanges are intrinsic requirements for the two countries to promote mutual understanding, build a solid foundation of trust, and deepen partnership.

The "clash of civilizations" theory has resurfaced in the current complex international situation, Gao warned. He called on the two countries to further enhance cultural exchanges and mutual learning to establish a paradigm for harmonious coexistence and win-win cooperation between different civilizations.

China and France, through deepening cooperation and exchanges, and strengthening mutual learning and understanding, will undoubtedly facilitate further implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative which was proposed last year, promote the common progress of different civilizations, enhance the well-being of all mankind, and lay a solid foundation for the sustainable peace and development of the world, Gao said.

Inalco's President Jean-Francois Huchet said France and China have increased academic exchanges in social sciences since the two countries established diplomatic relations 60 years ago. Their research areas have kept expanding to cover languages, cultures, sociology and economics, and bilateral academic cooperation sees immense potential, he added.

Researchers from the two countries held discussions on the practice of cross-cultural exchanges, retrospection and reflection on the mutual enrichment of civilizations, as well as scientific and technological innovation and the future of civilization.

At the opening of the symposium, China Social Sciences Press and the French publishing house You Feng jointly released a series of publications on "Understanding China." On the sidelines of the event was a book exhibition on Chinese-French academic exchanges. ■

Jean-Francois Huchet, president of the Paris-based National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco), speaks at a symposium themed "Exchanges and Mutual Learning between the Chinese and French Civilizations: Review and Outlook" in Paris, France, on May 3, 2024. (Xinhua/Lian Yi)"

#metaglossia_mundus

"In honor of Children’s Book Week, we are celebrating children’s books that promote the values of interfaith conversations.

By Suraj Arshanapally and Anu Gorukanti

• MAY 3, 2024

 

 

In honor of Children’s Book Week (May 6-12, 2024), we are celebrating children’s books that promote the values of interfaith cooperation and shape young minds toward fostering a more inclusive and understanding society.  

While numerous books teach children about specific religions, our focus is on those that prioritize the values of interfaith cooperation and intercultural understanding, thus promoting empathy, respect, and curiosity toward individuals with diverse worldviews. By exposing children to these values, they learn to celebrate differences, build bridges of understanding, and embrace our shared humanity. 

It’s Ramadan, Curious George

by H. A. Rey and Hena Khan 

It’s Ramadan! George helps Kareem with his first fast and joins him during the celebration. They make gift baskets for people who are in need and look at the crescent moon together. Toward the end of Ramadan, George joins in the Eid festival. This children’s book portrays interfaith friendships and highlights the beauty of learning about different religious traditions. George and Kareem show us that regardless of our worldviews or previous experiences, we can come together in celebration.  

Hanukkah Moon

By Deborah de Costa 

When Isobel visits Aunt Luisa’s for Hanukkah, she is not sure what’s in store. Aunt Luisa, who has recently arrived from Mexico, introduces Isobel to the Hanukkah Moon tradition. Through many celebrations such as breaking open a dreidel piñata and welcoming the luna nueva (new moon), Isobel’s expectations are surpassed by far. This unique tale celebrates intercultural cooperation, specifically among the Latin-Jewish community. Isobel and Aunt Luisa’s story emphasizes the beauty of sharing and embracing diverse ways to celebrate religious traditions. 

Kalamata’s Kitchen: Taste Buds in Harmony

By Deborah de Costa 

When Isobel visits Aunt Luisa’s for Hanukkah, she is not sure what’s in store. Aunt Luisa, who has recently arrived from Mexico, introduces Isobel to the Hanukkah Moon tradition. Through many celebrations such as breaking open a dreidel piñata and welcoming the luna nueva (new moon), Isobel’s expectations are surpassed by far. This unique tale celebrates intercultural cooperation, specifically among the Latin-Jewish community. Isobel and Aunt Luisa’s story emphasizes the beauty of sharing and embracing diverse ways to celebrate religious traditions. 

You Be You

By Linda Kranz 

When Adri, a little fish, ventures into the ocean, he is amazed by the vibrant diversity around him. He meets fish of all shapes, sizes, and colors – some large, some small, some smooth, and some spiny. Immersed in this colorful world, Adri’s story promotes interfaith understanding by highlighting the beauty of diversity that exists in the world. Despite their differences, Adri is able to coexist harmoniously in their shared environment.  

Elmer and Rose 

By David McKee 

When Grandpa Eldo enlists Elmer and his cousin Wilbur to help a young, pink elephant named Rose in finding her herd, they are surprised by her unique color! As they accompany Rose on her journey, Elmer and Wilbur learn about the importance of acceptance and inclusion. This children’s book promotes the values of interfaith and intercultural cooperation by embracing differences and fostering a sense of belonging. The story of Elmer and Rose illustrates how people (or elephants) from diverse backgrounds can come together to support and uplift one another despite their unique characteristics or worldviews.  

Shanté Keys and the New Year’s Peas

By Gail Piernas-Davenport 

It’s New Year’s Eve and Shanté Key is visiting her grandmother’s house. For good luck, her family eats black-eyed peas or cowpeas every New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, Grandma doesn’t have any black-eyed peas to cook, and Shanté Keys is on a mission to help her find some. Shanté Keys visits her neighbors to ask for help. She meets Senor Ortiz who shares about his Mexican tradition of eating grapes on New Year’s Eve and her Indian neighbor Hari who shares about his family’s Diwali traditions. After going throughout the neighborhood, Shanté Key’s aunt has some black-eyed peas to borrow and joins the family in preparing for the New Year’s feast. In celebration of their diverse traditions, all of Shanté Key’s neighbors join them for dinner to celebrate the New Year’s, bringing the food and traditions of their new year celebrations.

Binny’s Diwali

By Thrity Umrigar  

Binny’s teacher Mr. Boomer asked her to talk about her favorite holiday. Today, she is going to share about Diwali, the festival of lights. She puts on her new Indian outfit as she gets ready for school and eats delicious Indian sweets for breakfast with her family. When she gets to school, suddenly Binny feels too shy to talk about Diwali. After some encouragement from her teacher Mr. Boomer, Binny teaches her class about the meaning of Diwali, the celebration of victory of goodness and light, and shares about the lighting of lamps or diyas. She shares about the gorgeous lights and fireworks that light up the sky and offers her classmates delicious Indian treats. As a community, they celebrate Diwali together, highlighting the power of religious literacy for children.  

Hats of Faith

By Medeia Cohan  

People of all religious and cultural traditions wear head coverings or hats as a way to express their faith. In this illustrated children’s book, we learn about different hats worn in various faith traditions from Sikh turbans to the Tichel worn by Orthodox Jewish women to the Topi worn by many South Asian Muslim men. This book is a great introduction to building religious literacy about the different ways people practice and express their faith around the world.  

Salat in Secret

By Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow  

Muhummad is seven years old and his dad lets him know he is old enough to take part in Salat (a form of prayer that Muslims perform five times a day). When Muhummad goes to school, he is too shy to ask his teacher for a place to pray and doesn’t want his classmates to see him praying. He secretly prays quickly in the coat closet because he doesn’t want people to stare. When he goes home with his dad on his ice cream truck, his dad stops to pray on the sidewalk. A stranger thinks his prayer practice is strange and calls the police. His dad continues to pray anyway and Muhummad stands up to the policemen – telling him that “they are just ice cream men praying.” The police eventually leave and Muhummad and his dad continue their prayers together. The next day, Muhummad is proud to share with his teacher that he is Muslim and needs a dedicated space to pray. This book is a great introduction to the practices of the Islamic faith and can teach children how to advocate for faith practices that are important to them.  

Up The Creek

By Nicholas Oldland  

Bear, Moose and Beaver are good friends, but they often disagree on how to do things. On their canoe trip, this trio encounters many obstacles and often find themselves in arguments. After accidentally flipping over their canoe and getting thrown into a waterfall, Bear, Moose and Beaver recognize the only way they can safely get home is by working together. This book highlights the interfaith values of listening, teamwork and cooperation between animals (or people!) of different backgrounds and traditions. 

Suraj Arshanapally, MPH, is an Indian American storyteller and public health advocate. He started The Multicultural Man to celebrate cultural diversity and healthy masculinity through storytelling. He is also the Managing Editor for the CDC Yellow Book, an international travel medicine publication at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suraj received his MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Yale University. He believes multiculturalism and interfaith cooperation are crucial to building a healthy and peaceful society.   

  

Suraj Arshanapally wrote this article in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government.    

 

Anu Gorukanti, MD, is a public health practitioner and pediatric hospitalist. She is also the co-founder of  Introspective Spaces, a social venture committed to building reflective space and community for women in healthcare. She was a member of the Sacred Journeys and Witness fellowships. She cares deeply about the well-being of her colleagues in healthcare and is passionate about healthcare reform to create equitable and compassionate care for patients and communities. In her free time, she loves to photograph landscapes, learn to dance, and spend time with her wonderful husband, friends, and family."

#metaglossia_mundus

"This is immortalisation of the linguistic kind

May 4, 2024 6:00 am

Beyonce is being introduced into a French dictionary – which has a notoriously stringent selection criteria 

“I’m not bossy, I’m the boss”: a characteristically skilful sentence from the singer-songwriter and businesswoman Beyoncé, who used it in a campaign to quash the gendered use of “bossy” for any woman who is simply ambitious. This week, she has been bossing a totally different arena, thanks to the announcement of the inclusion of her name in Le Petit Larousse, a French dictionary which has a notoriously stringent selection criteria.

It’s certainly not the first time the star has made her mark: the Destiny’s Child song “Bootylicious“, co-written by her, dramatically pushed that adjective into the mainstream in the early noughties. But to have one’s very name included in the dictionary is a recognition many would aspire to, for this is immortalisation of the linguistic kind.

Granted, Le Petit Larousse is an encyclopaedic dictionary, and Beyoncé’s entry is biographical rather than a word with its own definition. To achieve the latter is rare indeed, reserved for the likes of Shakespeare and Dickens – centuries on an event might still be “Shakespearean” in its tragic proportions, while rental conditions might be positively “Dickensian”.

 

But it is not impossible in modern times: in 2001 Delia Smith saw “Delia” enter the Collins English Dictionary as a byword for a particular cooking style. Similarly, “Tarantinoesque”, after the director Quentin Tarantino, has found a place within the Oxford English Dictionary for a style of cinema characterised by violence and sharp dialogue. “Boris bike”, a colloquial term for the hireable bikes that were introduced when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London, was also given definition in a few current dictionaries, even if some might prefer Johnson’s legacy to be couched in rather different terms.

In fact, a competition akin to I’m a Celebrity, Get me in the Dictionary would not be short of contestants. From Billy No Mates to Flipping Ada and every Tom, Dick, and Harry, English is chock-full of personalities. And some of them belong to real individuals, whose exploits or achievements have percolated through time so that their name has come to signify one thing.

That sense of dread you feel when you’re on holiday? There’s a word for that

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The original Jack the Lad, for example, was a notorious thief and folk hero in 18th century London. Brought up in a Bishopsgate workhouse, Jack Sheppard fell into crime at an early age, but his lasting fame rests on his many and spectacular escapes from prison despite increasingly elaborate attempts to keep him there, including being handcuffed and manacled to the floor. He subsequently became known to the authorities as Jack the Lad.

To the poorer classes, Sheppard was a daring hero and irrepressible champion; when his crimes finally caught up with him and he was hanged at Tyburn, a crowd of some 200,000 spectators came to witness it.

 

Another criminal who unwittingly found his way into the dictionary was Aleck Hoag, a notorious pimp, thief, and confidence man in 19th century New York who was dubbed “smart Aleck” by the NYPD because he considered himself smarter than the rest of them. The epithet has endured as a jibe for a smart-ass know-it-all.

More positively, when we describe ourselves as being “happy as Larry”, we may be giving a silent nod to Larry Foley, a renowned 19th century Australian boxer who retired at 32 and collected a purse of £1,000 for his final fight, presumably making him very happy indeed.

Admittedly there is another contender for the expression’s etymology, namely an old dialect word “larrikin”, meaning a mischievous child – but that wouldn’t be quite as much fun.

We do know that the original “maverick” was a Texan cattle rancher of that name, who consistently refused to brand his cows. Both Samuel Maverick and his animals came to be seen as outliers who didn’t conform to the norm. The name has come to signify just that ever since.

In some cases, the original inspiration for a biographical expression has been lost in time. We have, for example, no idea as to the identity of one Mickey Bliss, but his name became the foundation of the rhyming slang for “taking the mickey”: taking the Mickey Bliss/piss.

The same goes for Nelly Duff, the muse for the expression “not on your Nelly”, in which “not on your Nelly Duff” was part of a complicated rhyming slang formula for “Duff/puff/puff of life” – hence “not on your life”.

The list of dictionary personalities will certainly not end there. Beyoncé reportedly hopes that “bootylicious” will not be her only contribution to the English language. Perhaps her inclusion in Le Petit Larousse is the first step towards the use of her name for something transcending her time and place, with a meaning all of its own. If “Amazonian” has survived the centuries as an adjective for a legendary female warrior, then there is perhaps a chance for her.

 

For now, we must let democracy do its thing and let language go where the majority wants it to. When it comes to dictionaries, we are all the boss.

Susie Dent is a lexicographer and etymologist. She has appeared in Dictionary Corner on Countdown since 1992, and co-hosts with Gyles Brandreth the podcast Something Rhymes with Purple"

#metaglossia_mundus

USA May 2 2024 Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.   "The "ensuing loss" clause is a provision that restores coverage for property insurance claims that are subject to certain policy exclusions, such as “faulty workmanship” and “faulty design.” It applies in cases where there is damage from a covered cause of loss that ensues, or results from, the excluded cause of loss. Courts across jurisdictions have grappled with interpreting the breadth of this clause, leading to varying conclusions regarding its scope and applicability. One of the primary challenges in interpreting “ensuing loss” lies in determining the ultimate cause of damage. Courts must ascertain whether the ensuing loss is sufficiently distinct from the excluded event to warrant coverage under the policy. This analysis often hinges on whether the cause of loss is thought to constitute a separate and independent occurrence or is merely a continuation or exacerbation of the excluded event.

The Supreme Court of Washington has recently offered its assessment of the standard “resulting loss” (or “ensuing loss”) exception in the case of Gardens Condo v. Farmers Rich Ins. Exchange.1 In such a case, the court applied a broad reading of this provision to hold that it revives coverage for losses caused by covered perils, regardless of whether the resulting loss was a natural consequence of the excluded event (i.e., part of a continuous chain of causation).

The facts involved an insured, Gardens Condominium (“Gardens”), who discovered water damage to its condominium's roof in 2002 caused by faulty design and construction. Repairs were undertaken in 2003-2004, including a redesign to improve ventilation/avoidance of condensation. Many years later, in 2019, additional roof damage was discovered due to inadequate ventilation. Gardens sought coverage for the resulting water damage under its property insurance policy, but the insurer, Farmers Insurance Exchange (“Farmers”), denied the claim, citing the policy’s faulty workmanship exclusion. Gardens argued that the resulting loss exception to the exclusion applied because the claimed damage was from water condensation that ensued from the improper ventilation of the roof system. The insurer contrarily asserted that the resulting loss exception did not apply because the condensation was a natural consequence (did not disrupt the chain) of the faulty work. Gardens filed suit, and the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Farmers. The Court of Appeals reversed this decision, and the Washington Supreme Court took up the matter. In affirming the holding of the Court of Appeals, finding that the “resulting loss” exception applied, the Washington Supreme Court stated:

Farmers argues that the resulting loss exception does not apply to natural consequences of an excluded peril and, relatedly, that condensation is not a new peril because it is the “natural and unavoidable byproduct of the faulty lack of ventilation.” . . .The resulting loss exception to the faulty workmanship exclusion states that Farmers will pay for loss or damage caused by a covered cause of loss resulting from faulty workmanship. It does not state that the covered cause of loss must be independent from the faulty workmanship or that it cannot be a natural consequence of faulty workmanship. Because the language of the exception is clear, we will not rewrite it by adding requirements. Consistent with our principles of interpretation, exclusions are strictly construed against the insurer.

Looking forward, the Washington court further pointed out that insurers are free to draft policies without resulting loss exceptions or limit their scope if they wish to exclude entire causal chains resulting from excluded perils.

The case highlights the significance of resulting loss clauses in maintaining insurance's fundamental purpose: protecting against unforeseen risks. The Washington Supreme Court's analysis of this clause reinforces established rules in insurance interpretation, such as construing policies as a whole and harmonizing conflicting clauses. However, policyholders should take caution that court opinions vary. In New Hampshire, for example, the state’s supreme court has applied a much narrower view of the “ensuing loss” provision, emphasizing the need for significant attenuation between the initial excluded defect and the ultimate cause of loss, rejecting an argument that damage from mold contamination constituted an ensuing loss separate from the initial defect that caused the mold. Thus, the dichotomy between excluded loss and ensuing loss remains an issue of wide debate.

Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. - David G. Jordan and William E. Phillips IV"

#metaglossia_mundus

"La tyrannie des algorithmes. Si vous avez l’impression que vous regardez les même séries Netflix que tout le monde, que vous écoutez les même playlist spotify, qu’il y a de plus en plus d’avocado toast dans les restaurants du monde entier, que les coffee shop se resemblent de plus en plus...

Oui un livre américain sur la Tech qui cite Pierre Bourdieu et George Perec vaut bien une chronique entière. Le titre de ce livre c’est “Un monde sous filtre: comment les algorithmes ont aplati la Culture”. Sa thèse ? “Les algorithmes façonnent notre façon de vivre, notre culture, nos goûts personnels et donc… ce que nous sommes”.

 

En clair, les algorithmes sont partout…"

#metaglossia_mundus

"A recent study revealed the cognitive advantages for teachers and other individuals engaged in careers demanding high cognitive and interpersonal skills.

Friday, May 3, 2024

By: Shannon Burns

A recent study revealed the cognitive advantages for teachers and other individuals engaged in careers demanding high cognitive and interpersonal skills.

Recently published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the study analyzed the health records and occupational data of a group of 7,000 Norwegians to disclose any correlation between career paths and the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. The findings revealed that those entrenched in routine jobs from their 30s to 60s faced a 66 percent higher risk of MCI and a 37 percent greater risk of dementia after reaching the age of 70 compared to those engaged in mentally stimulating jobs.

The study delineated between routine jobs such as factory workers, bookkeepers, and mail carriers that involve repetitive manual and mental tasks and cognitively demanding jobs such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, and teachers. These jobs involve creative thinking, analyzing information, problem-solving, explaining ideas to others, and mental demands such as coaching or motivating others.  

From creating innovative lesson plans to nurturing the intellectual curiosity of students, teachers are at the forefront of cognitive engagement. By routinely engaging in intellectually stimulating tasks, teachers fortify their cognitive resilience, laying the foundation for a healthier cognitive journey.

For more information on the topic, check out the recent CNN article Routine jobs raise the risk of cognitive decline by 66% and dementia by 37%, study says.

Shannon Burns joined HR Services in 2023 as an HR consultant. She has 22 years of experience in public school districts serving as an executive director of human resources, special programs coordinator, campus administrator, and teacher.

Burns earned her master’s degree from Texas A&M in Kingsville and her superintendent certificate from The University of Texas at Tyler."

#metaglossia_mundus

"The lonely human brain has found its soulmate in artificial intelligence.

John Nosta      The Digital Self ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

After thousands of years, LLMs have become our brain's perfect partner.

Posted May 3, 2024 |  Reviewed by Davia Sills

KEY POINTS

• The human brain evolved to operate as a single, self-contained entity.
• Partnering with AI can offer new resources and expand the human brain's potential.
• This can help people navigate professions, skills, and fields of study that were previously out of reach.

 

For thousands of years, the human brain has been a remarkably optimized biological machine—a self-contained cognitive powerhouse unlike anything else in the natural world. Its billions of neurons fire in perfect synchrony, miraculously giving rise to our thoughts, emotions, and conscious experience of reality.

 

And yet, this biological marvel has been rather lonely.

You see, the human brain evolved to operate as a single, self-contained entity, with no external cognitive partners to enhance or expand its potential. It has had to go it alone, confined within the cage of the skull, limited by the finite storage and processing capacity of a few pounds of tissue.

 

But all that is about to change. With the advent of large language models (LLMs) and other artificial intelligence systems, the lonely brain has found its ideal partner—a virtual "cognitive co-conspirator" that can vastly extend and enhance its abilities.

Consider the marvel of the brain's structure: The Circle of Willis neatly packages and preserves the brain's blood supply. Metabolic scaling laws allow our three-pound cerebrum to punch far above its weight class—consuming 20 percent of our energy needs with only 2 percent of our body mass. And our enzymatic biochemistry spares the brain the lactic acid buildup that plagues muscle fibers.

 

These intelligent designs allowed the human brain to become optimized for its lonely existence over millennia of evolutionary refinement. But now we are entering a new cognitive age where these inherent capabilities can be exponentially magnified.

LLMs give our brains something it has never had before—a digital extension to interface with the world's knowledge and engage in fluid reasoning. Suddenly, solitary pondering can become an enriching dialectic with an artificial intellect. Abstract ideas incubating in our mind can be rapidly iterated, prototyped, and stress-tested against the LLM's vast information reserves.

 

What's more, LLMs can serve as personalized mentors, guiding our learning journey and helping us navigate professions, skills, and fields of study that were previously out of reach for a single human mind. We can pursue paths of deeper introspection and self-actualization by leaning on the AI's ability to illuminate our blind spots and supplement our base knowledge.

 

At its core, this new cognitive partnership is powered by the brain's most fundamental operating language—the very words, sentences, and ideas that spark our neurons and knit our inner voice. By opening a channel to commune with LLMs through natural language itself, we are transcending prior limitations.

article continues after advertisement

Make no mistake—this is not just another incremental technological advance. This is a fundamental reframing of the human cognitive experience after thousands of years of lonely isolation within our skulls. The lonely brain has claimed its stake in the Cognitive Age and has finally found its counterpart and co-creator. And this is just the beginning."

#metaglossia_mundus

by Simon Fraser University   "Listening to music benefits older adults' cognitive health, even if it's music they haven't heard before or don't enjoy very much, according to a study by Simon Fraser University and Health Research BC researchers.

 

Led by SFU neuroscientist Sarah Faber, the study published in Network Neuroscience discovered that listening to music activates brain regions linked to reward in older adults, regardless of their familiarity with the music.

"Hearing music engages multiple networks across our brains," says Faber. "On top of the physical properties of sounds we hear, several additional factors help form the whole-brain picture. Have you heard the song before? Do you like it? Does it bring back memories?"

Faber, who is also a postdoctoral researcher with SFU's Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, says that hearing music may be beneficial for older adults with neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer's Disease as it can help bring back memories and provides a way to stay connected to their past and to their loved ones, as well as their peers.

Researchers monitored brain activity across two cohorts of participants listening to music: a younger group of adults with an average age of 19, and a set of older adults with average age of 67.

 

 

Participants listened to 24 samples, including songs they selected themselves, popular and recognizable music intentionally chosen by researchers and ambiguous songs composed specifically for the study.

"We found that the brain structures responsible for processing physiological and cognitive reward—also known as the reward network—are activated in younger adults while they listen to music they like or are familiar with. However, older adults' reward networks are stimulated by music even when it is brand new to them, or if they report not liking it very much," says Faber.

"Understanding how music works in the brain is highly complex, especially given that our brains are constantly evolving with age," she says. "With training, the auditory reward network can become even more engaged across all types of music."

"But even when the music is not familiar to them, it still has the ability to make their body move, and to help calibrate or balance their emotions by activating those regions in the brain," she says.

Faber says there are several additional benefits of listening to music for both older and younger adults. "If you're going through a tough time, music can motivate you or help you relax. It can help us form social bonds.

"Bonding with a person over shared music that you like is a highly effective way to connect. We can also bond with people over shared music that we dislike."

Having laid down the groundwork for her future research, Faber's next steps include applying the methods and the conclusions from this study to examine whether the same patterns of brain activity are found in older adults with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

More information: Sarah E. M. Faber et al, Age-related variability in network engagement during music listening, Network Neuroscience (2023). DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00333"

#metaglossia_mundus

"Google's preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly propped up by more than US$20 billion spent each year by the tech giant to lock out competition, U.S. Justice Department lawyers argued at the closings of a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit.

Published May 3, 2024 8:27 p.m. WAT

WASHINGTON -

 Google's preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly propped up by more than US$20 billion spent each year by the tech giant to lock out competition, U.S. Justice Department lawyers argued at the closings of a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit.

Google, on the other hand, maintains that its ubiquity flows from its excellence, and its ability to deliver results customers are looking for.

The U.S. government, a coalition of states and Google all made their closing arguments Friday in the 10-week lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who must now decide whether Google broke the law in maintaining a monopoly status as a search engine.

Much of the case, the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades, has revolved around how much Google derives its strength from contracts it has in place with companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine preloaded on cellphones and computers.

At trial, evidence showed that Google spends more than US$20 billion a year on such contracts. Justice Department lawyers have said the huge sum is indicative of how important it is for Google to make itself the default search engine and block competitors from getting a foothold.

Google responds that customers could easily click away to other search engines if they wanted, but that consumers invariably prefer Google. Companies like Apple testified at trial that they partner with Google because they consider its search engine to be superior.

Google also argues that the government defines the search engine market too narrowly. While it does hold a dominant position over other general search engines like Bing and Yahoo, Google says it faces much more intense competition when consumers make targeted searches. For instance, the tech giant says shoppers may be more likely to search for products on Amazon than Google, vacation planners may run their searches on AirBnB, and hungry diners may be more likely to search for a restaurant on Yelp.

And Google has said that social media companies like Facebook and TikTok also present fierce competition.

During Friday's arguments, Mehta questioned whether some of those other companies are really in the same market. He said social media companies can generate ad revenue by trying to present ads that seem to match a consumer's interest. But he said Google has the ability to place ads in front of consumers in direct response to queries they submit.

“It's only Google where we can see that directly declared intent,” Mehta said.

Google's lawyer, John Schmidtlein, responded that social media companies “have lots and lots of information about your interests that I would say is just as powerful.”

The company has also argued that its market strength is tenuous as the internet continually remakes itself. Earlier in the trial, it noted that many experts once considered it irrefutable that Yahoo would always be dominant in search. Today, it said that younger tech consumers sometimes think of Google as “Grandpa Google.”

While Google's search services are free to consumers, the company generates revenue from searches by selling ads that accompany a user's search results.

Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist said during Friday's arguments that Google was able to increase its ad revenue through growth in the number of queries submitted until about 2015 when query growth slowed and they needed to make more money on each search.

The government argues that Google's search engine monopoly allows it to charge artificially higher prices to advertisers, which eventually carry over to consumers.

“Price increases should be bounded by competition,” Dahlquist said. “It should be the market deciding what the price increases are.”

Dahlquist said internal Google documents show that the company, unencumbered by any real competition, began tweaking its ad algorithms to sometimes provide worse search ad results to users if it would increase revenue.

Google's lawyer, Schmidtlein, said the record shows that its search ads have become more effective and more helpful to consumers over time, increasing from a 10% click rate to 30%.

Mehta has not yet said when he will rule, though there is an expectation that it may take several months.

If he finds that Google violated the law, he would then schedule a “remedies” phase of the trial to determine what should be done to bolster competition in the search-engine market. The government has not yet said what kind of remedy it would seek."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/google-s-search-engine-is-an-illegal-monopoly-u-s-justice-department-says-1.6872751

 

"Por primera vez, la Medalla Goethe, la máxima distinción de la política cultural exterior de Alemania, recae en una mujer mexicana: la traductora literaria e intérprete Claudia Cabrera Luna.

Itzel Zúñiga

30/04/202430 de abril de 2024

Por primera vez, la Medalla Goethe, la máxima distinción de la política cultural exterior de Alemania, recae en una mujer mexicana: la traductora literaria e intérprete Claudia Cabrera Luna.

 

Sin proponérselo como profesión, desde 1994 Claudia Cabrera empezó a volcar al español de México, su país natal, pequeños textos en alemán mientras trabajaba en el Goethe-Institut de México. Después siguió el catálogo de una exposición, de alguna retrospectiva fílmica y luego una obra de teatro.

Así surgió su labor de vida, reconocida este 24 de abril con la Medalla Goethe, que la República Federal de Alemania ha concedido a partir de 1955 a 380 personalidades extranjeras por sus contribuciones al arte, la ciencia y la cultura.

"Claudia Cabrera es una de las mejores traductoras literarias y de teatro del idioma alemán en México. Desde 1994 ha traducido al español mexicano más de 60 novelas, obras de teatro y libros de no ficción, entre ellas obras de Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Julia Franck, Cornelia Funke, Franz Kafka, Heiner Müller, Robert Musil, Silke Scheuermann y Anna Seghers”, indicó el jurado.

A lo largo de 30 años, por sus manos han pasado un sinfín de obras de autores y especialistas de lengua germana, como "El Hacha de Wandsbek”, de Arnold Zweig, cuya traducción le valió en 2020 el Premio Bellas Artes de Traducción Literaria Margarita Michelena, del gobierno mexicano.

"Con este impresionante desempeño, Claudia Cabrera contribuye significativamente a la notoriedad y popularidad de la literatura alemana, así como de sus autores y autoras, en México y América Latina”, se afirmó en el fallo, emitido en Múnich.

La ceremonia de entrega será encabezada por Carola Lentz, presidenta del Goethe-Instituta nivel mundial. Tendrá lugar en Weimar el 28 de agosto, justo al cumplirse 275 años del natalicio de Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, autor emblemático de las letras germanas.

Las tres galardonadas de 2024 son la historiadora y gestora cultural macedonia Iskra Geshoska; la chilena Carmen Romero Quero, directora del Festival Internacional Teatro a Mil, y Cabrera Luna, también fundadora y presidenta de la Asociación Mexicana de Traductores Literarios (Ametli), quien habla con DW del premio y los retos de su profesión.

DW: Como la primera mujer mexicana en obtenerla ¿qué representa esta condecoración para usted?

Claudia Cabrera: Todavía no alcanzo a salir de mi estupor de que me hayan concedido la Medalla Goethe. El primer mexicano en recibirla en 1995 fue José María Pérez Gay, el germanista más importante de México. Y que yo, una traductora literaria autodidacta, sea objeto de ese honor me parece increíble. Es la confirmación de una vida dedicada al servicio de mis dos lenguas, español y alemán.

¿Considera entonces que es también un premio a su gremio?

Me parece significativo y no casual que la presea que se otorga no sólo por la difusión de la lengua y la cultura alemanas, sino también por el fomento a la cooperación cultural internacional, haya ido a parar varias veces a manos de traductores, entre ellos, al español Miguel Sáenz.

Es un reconocimiento de gran calado a la labor imprescindible de los traductores literarios. Sin nosotros, las diferentes lenguas y culturas serían islas, sin traductores no habría intercambio de conocimiento en otras lenguas. Me gusta mucho citar a José Saramago, quien dijo que "si los autores hacen la literatura nacional, los traductores hacen la literatura universal”.

El alemán y el español son tan diferentes lingüística y culturalmente hablando. ¿Qué tan compleja es su labor?

Si bien vistos desde afuera el español y el alemán -o México y Alemania- pueden parecer totalmente disímiles, he tenido la fortuna de vivir desde niña en ambos mundos. Y al hacerlo aprendí que, pese a sus aparentes diferencias, no son tan contradictorios.

Esta vida bilingüe y bicultural -que le debo al Colegio Alemán-, me ha facilitado la labor de mediar y comunicar entre ambas lenguas, de hallar formas de explicar y acercar hechos y conceptos que, en principio, podrían resultar ajenos al público mexicano. En mi más reciente traducción de "La séptima Cruz”, de Anna Seghers, novela que sucede en la década de 1930 en pleno Tercer Reich, propuse a mis editores añadir un glosario de términos, hechos históricos o personajes que un lector mexicano del siglo XXI no tiene por qué conocer, pero necesarios para comprender la trama y el contexto histórico y político de la obra.

¿Qué cualidades debe tener un traductor?

Cuando no existe la traducción exacta de una palabra o concepto, cosa muy frecuente, hay que buscar equivalentes, aproximaciones o paráfrasis, inventar metáforas nuevas y adecuadas e incluso acuñar términos nuevos. En esto consiste el encanto y el reto de la traducción literaria: en transportar y hacer inteligibles no sólo palabras, sino universos enteros.

Debes ser un lector ávido, conocer bien tu propia lengua y entender los intríngulis más sutiles de la lengua de la cual estás traduciendo. Tener una curiosidad insaciable, porque la traducción implica muchísima investigación pues no se puede traducir un tema que no conoces ni entiendes.

¿Cuáles considera que son los retos de su gremio?

 

Quiero dedicar el premio a todos los traductores literarios de mi país porque quiero pensar que nos dará visibilidad y llamará la atención sobre la importancia de la traducción literaria, sobre la calidad autoral de los traductores, quienes, según la Ley Federal del Derecho de Autor (de México), somos autores de obra derivada, no de obra primigenia, pero lo somos y como tales deberíamos cobrar regalías.

Nuestra lucha también es para que nos reconozcan los derechos morales, es decir, que aparezca nuestro crédito en la portada junto al nombre del autor de la obra, en la página legal o que los traductores tengamos la última palabra en cuanto a las correcciones de nuestros textos, no la editorial, pues en ocasiones hay términos o juegos de palabras que no se están entendiendo; al cambiarlos se modifica el sentido de lo escrito por el autor original en su lengua materna.

A esta minusvaloración e invisibilidad también se suman la imposibilidad de vivir sólo de la traducción literaria y la precarización de los derechos laborales. Son problemáticas frecuentes en muchos países, por ejemplo, en América Latina.

¿Cree usted que la inteligencia artificial amenaza la labor de los traductores?

La inteligencia artificial o las inteligencias artificiales ni son inteligentes ni son artificiales porque se nutren de un compendio de la sabiduría humana. Creo que primero afectarán a otras especialidades de traducción como las más técnicas, mas no a la traducción literaria por su alto grado de complejidad y de sutileza.

Las inteligencias artificiales tardarán un tiempo en producir y traducir buena literatura, pues si no entiendes el contexto histórico, cultural y lingüístico, no es posible traducir adecuadamente. Esa capacidad, que es humana, no la tienen las máquinas.

Por último, ¿qué obra traduce actualmente?

Me conmueve y enorgullece enormemente recibir el mismo premio concedido en 2003 a la periodista checo-alemana Lenka Reinerová, quien vivió en México durante los años 40 del siglo pasado, huyendo del terror nazi. Es una de las autoras, junto con Anna Seghers, Alice Rühle-Gerstel y Steffie Spira, a las que estoy traduciendo como parte de mi proyecto de rescate de las escritoras germanoparlantes exiliadas en este país durante el Tercer Reich.

Quise recuperar sus historias porque, a diferencia del exilio español, muy presente aquí en México, del exilio alemán no queda mucho. Aunque fue muy relevante para la sociedad mexicana de la época, es una memoria artística, cultural e histórica que se ha ido diluyendo porque al terminar la Segunda Guerra Mundial muchos alemanes regresaron a Alemania o porque en el país poca gente hablaba alemán.

Estas autoras son desconocidas en México, por eso quise integrarlas al canon literario mexicano. Me propuse traducirlas al español mexicano, con un lenguaje contemporáneo, porque "Tránsito”, "La séptima cruz” y "La excursión de las niñas muertas”, de Seghers, se tradujeron en España, pero no en México, donde se escribieron.

Por otra parte, ahora que están resurgiendo los fascismos, tanto en Alemania como en otros países europeos o latinoamericanos, hay que recordar lo que hizo el fascismo en los años 30 o 40."

#metaglossia_mundus

"In this talk, David Yang will discuss his experience of translating Nishioka Kyōdai’s manga adaptation of Franz Kafka’s stories into English. In particular, he reflects on the medium specificity of manga and the challenges it poses to translation, as well as his hybrid translation process, which relied on the Japanese text as well as Kafka’s German original. These different layers of mediation allow readers to experience Kafka’s masterpieces in fresh new ways.

• Day & Time：May 21st, 2024 (Tuesday), 14:00-15:00
• Venue：Lab (2nd floor of WIHL)
• Language：English
• Participation：Free
• Participants：Students, Faculty and Public
• Presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, with support from the Waseda International House of Literature

Flyer

Lecture

David Yang

David Yang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA and a Yanai Initiative Research Fellow at Waseda University. Informed by translation studies, his research examines the conceptualization of endings in modern Japanese literature. His translation of Nishioka Kyōdai’s Kafka: a Manga Adaptation was published by Pushkin Press in 2023."

#metaglossia_mundus

"Gordon Runyan, Religion columnist | May 01, 2024

“Pastor, how can you believe in the Bible when it’s been translated so many times?”

That’s a common objection. Meaning no insult, but it’s an argument based on ignorance. The objector doesn’t know anything about how the Bible came to be and assumes the worst: a shadowy history littered with corruptions both accidental and nefarious.

It’s assumed that we got the Scriptures through a process much like the old party game, “Phone Message.”

In that game, you line up several children in a row. A long sentence is told to the first child. He takes off running, around a cone, and then comes back and whispers the sentence he was told to the next kid. When you get to the last child, there’s the punchline. You have the last one recite what he thinks he heard, and everybody gets a good laugh at how mangled the message has become, compared to what the first child was actually told.

People think we got the Bible that way. Or, they assume the process is something like making old Xerox copies, and then making copies of the copies, until the document is ugly and hard to read.

But if I write a book in English and then three friends translate my book into their native languages (say French, Spanish, and German) that has no effect on the book I wrote. None at all. It still says what it says when I typed the words, “The End.”

Now, one of the friends may have made some translational errors. Maybe he’s not so great at English after all. OK, that’s not hard to spot, because eventually we’ll run across someone who knows both languages and can highlight the errors. So what should be done? We just make a new translation, hoping to improve on previous efforts. We still have the original book for making comparisons.

 

In that process, no matter how many times it’s repeated, it doesn’t change what was originally written. The same is true for making hand-written copies: as long as we have the source document, we can spot inaccuracies and correct our work.

There are in existence right now over 5,000 ancient manuscripts of Scripture and lots of ancient translations into other languages. In some cases, the source documents we’re working with date to several hundred years B.C.

We have copies from many time periods and geographical regions. We have enough to say with certainty that the Phone Message game is not what happened here. How do we know?

Because the older copies say the same thing, overwhelmingly, as all the later copies. The medieval era Latin carries the same message as the Hebrew and Greek from 300 A.D. If somebody made huge errors along the way, or the Council of Nicea (for instance) had forced a bunch of wholesale changes, that would be very easy to spot.

 

We have all the receipts, as the kids say. We can spot all the issues, like missing words, misspellings, and transposed numbers. There are modern English translations that will even show you where all those places are.

Nobody’s hiding any of this. There’s no need. You have the Bible God intended.

Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at:

reformnm@yahoo.com"

#metaglossia_mundus

Non-verbal communication such as gestures, facial expressions and body movements can convey a wealth of information beyond words, writes guest columnist Karen Friedman.

#metaglossia_mundus

"Tomedes Launches New ‘Most Popular Translation’ Feature in MachineTranslation.com

New Feature Allows Users to View Translations Ranked by Similarity Across Online Translation Tools

April 30, 2024 14:59 ET| Source: Tomedes

Oregon, Beaverton, April 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MachineTranslation.com by Tomedes is excited to announce a new feature called "Most Popular Translation." This innovative functionality provides a straightforward way for users to view and compare translations from various sources, including different machine translation engines, online translation tools, and generative AI models.

The "Most Popular Translation" feature calculates a similarity score that reflects the consensus among diverse translation systems about a particular translation. This score is crucial for users who seek reliable and precise translations, as it highlights translations with the highest degree of agreement and sameness across various platforms, suggesting enhanced reliability and accuracy.

This AI-powered feature is designed to assist users who rely on precise translations, providing a clear, numerical measure of consensus that can guide decision-making.

Feature Overview:

• Comparison of Translations: Analyzes and displays how similar translations are across different engines and tools, incorporating machine translation evaluation to ensure accuracy.
• Guidance on Reliability: Translations with higher similarity scores suggest a greater consensus among engines.
• User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive button and tooltips that help users navigate the feature easily.

In addition to the "Most Popular Translation," MachineTranslation.com offers several other AI-powered features designed to enhance user experience and translation accuracy:

• AI Translation Insights: Provides users with insights about word choice, consistency, and length across different translation outputs, helping to refine the translation process.
• AI Quality Score: Each translation is scored on a scale from 1 to 10, offering users a clear, quantitative measure of translation quality based on AI evaluations.
• Detailed Analysis & MTPE Assessment: Offers a written analysis of each translation's smoothness or fluency and advises whether human post-editing is necessary to improve the translation.

These features together provide a comprehensive toolset for anyone needing high-quality, nuanced translations, combining the latest in AI technology with user-friendly design.

For additional details about this feature or to experience it firsthand, please visit https://www.machinetranslation.com.

About MachineTranslation.com:

MachineTranslation.com by Tomedes is an AI-assisted online translation tool that translates, compares, and recommends the best translations in real-time. It offers high-quality, and cost-effective translation services with detailed AI analyses and quality scores, making it ideal for SMEs.

 

Media Contact:

Rachelle Garcia

Head of AI

MachineTranslation.com

info@machinetranslation.com

 

Disclaimer: The information mentioned in the press release is provided by source Tomedes. KISS PR and its distribution partners are not directly or indirectly responsible for any claims made in the above statements. Contact the vendor of the product directly for any queries/issues."

#metaglossia_mundus

"Abstract. Large-scale pretrained language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and GPT4, have shown strong abilities in multilingual translation, without being explicitly trained on parallel corpora. It is intriguing how the LLMs obtain their ability to carry out translation instructions for different languages. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis by finetuning a multilingual pretrained language model, XGLM-7.5B, to perform multilingual translation following given instructions. Firstly, we show that multilingual LLMs have stronger translation abilities than previously demonstrated. For a certain language, the translation performance depends on its similarity to English and the amount of data used in the pretraining phase. Secondly, we find that LLMs’ ability to carry out translation instructions relies on the understanding of translation instructions and the alignment among different languages. With multilingual finetuning with translation instructions, LLMs could learn to perform the translation task well even for those language pairs unseen during the instruction tuning phase."

#metaglossia_mundus

"“Translators and writers must fight through the “labyrinth of imagination,” find their way through their private language toward a text’s new picture of reality.” "Translators and writers must fight through the “labyrinth of [the] imagination,” find their way through their private language toward a text’s new picture of reality."

4.30.2024

BY RYAN CARROLL

“The responsibility of translator,” writes Olga Tokarczuk, “is equal to that of writer.”1 Both connect “intimate language”—through which individuals understand their experience—with “collective language”: the shared vocabulary through which a society forms its “picture of reality.” Ideally, a writer refreshes stale collective language by offering new articulations of experience, and a translator shares different societies’ languages to reveal that there is no single way to interpret the world. In this sense, writing and translating stitch together individual voices into new collectives, forming new totalizing conceptions of reality.

So writes Tokarczuk—or, rather, so writes Tokarczuk as translated by Jennifer Croft. Croft herself imagines translators similarly in her new novel, The Extinction of Irena Rey: as upcyclers, parasites, devotees, minotaurs, conquerors, creators, invasive species, and, perhaps, human beings. But she insists most ardently that translators are the connective tissue in massive systems.

Croft and Tokarczuk share a concern for individuals and the totalities they inhabit. The profound feat of Tokarczuk’s historical epic The Books of Jacob is its new collective language, which figures the massive web of reality through the textured frailty of human beings. Croft, in contrast, attends to the way the intimate language of the individual sustains whole pictures of reality. And, precisely in the novel’s shortcomings, Croft also shows the fickleness and fragility of individual language—and its failure to produce pictures of existential systems.

In her celebrated Nobel lecture, Tokarczuk suggests that the contemporary world requires a new kind of novelistic voice. To represent the world’s massive systems without losing fidelity to individuals, spares, or strays calls for a “tender narrator”: a storyteller with a “perspective from where everything can be seen,” who illuminates “that all things that exist are mutually connected into a single whole.”2 Such a narrator, she clarifies, is not a mere accumulator of information but a mythmaker, synthesizing disparate objects into a totality the reader can experience.

In Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob, the tender narrator is ostensibly Yente, grandmother to the titular eighteenth-century Jewish messianic leader Jacob Frank. On the first page, Yente swallows an amulet meant to forestall her death and is mysteriously transported outside her body, allowed to watch centuries of history and countless human lives unfurl.

But really, Yente is a fictive conceit; one doesn’t get the sense that in Tokarczuk’s epic, intimate language comes from Yente’s lips. The true tender narrator is a phantasm of syntactic twists and dictional choices: the prose itself. Tokarczuk’s great achievement is the creation of a new language for grasping the world, a narrative voice that conjures and binds individual people in their hopes, agonies, desperations. The novel’s massive web of characters, immersed in the tumult of plague and war and intolerance, lament, each in their own way, that the world is “made poorly.” But the novel itself binds them together in the enormity and minutia of their thirst for salvation.

Consider, for instance, Jacob’s encounter with the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, among the most renowned Christian icons in Poland. The scene’s details are narrated in the present tense, flinging us into the middle: “Jacob is permitted to enter the crowd in front of the picture. He is scared, but not of the picture—of the crowd.” Then, rupture:

Something strange freezes in the air, so that your heart contracts as if from fear, but it isn’t fear, it’s something bigger, and it happens to Jacob, too, so that he falls on his face, onto the floor that was only just stomped all over by the peasants’ dirty shoes, and here, next to the floor, the racket quiets, and it’s easier to bear the tightness in his chest that out of nowhere folded him in half.

Later, in his chambers, Jacob deliriously prophesies that the Virgin is a guise of the Shekinah (a Kabbalistic divine feminine figure) and a key to salvation: “She has to hide in the abyss … But every day she will appear to us more clearly, down to her every detail.” The perspective gently shifts to Jacob’s attendant, who leaves the chamber and later spots a strange hierophantic inscription on the wall. “He looks at it, his surprise not wearing off, then shrugs and blows the candle out.” And then we’re gone, on to another chapter.

Episodes like this accumulate over the novel’s 900-odd pages, a complete image forming from disparate pieces. Patterns emerge: the inexplicable in the ordinary, suffering that defies explanation, salvation that appears this close. We discern an underlying fabric, a narrative logic tuned to existential need.

This logic most clearly appears when Yente, from her mystical vantage, gazes upon the “messianic machine,” the metaphysical infrastructure of reality. It spins “slowly and systematically,” working pedestrian life into salvation, and its product is the Messiah itself. This Messiah, like the narrative voice that permeates the novel, “is something that flows in your blood, resides in your breath,” and is found in the “dearest and most precious human thought: that salvation exists.”

The novel’s own messianic machine is built of this fragile particularity: fugitive note-taking and rambling letters, webs of backdoor diplomacy and gossipy fortune telling and the delirious look by which the faithful realize the Spirit of God has entered Jacob. In them, we find a world that is, in Walter Benjamin’s words, “shot through with chips of messianic time.”3

With its whirring salvific hydraulics, The Books of Jacob’s narration creates a new picture of totality. And it does so simply—impossibly—by holding together moments of human frailty.

Narrative voice—tender, sober, mystical, earthly—is Tokarczuk’s achievement. But it isn’t hers alone: after all, it is Jennifer Croft who brought forth Tokarczuk’s private messianic language in English.

Croft has described translating The Books of Jacob as a multifocal process. Translation, she argues, means parsing the meaning of each word and intuiting the cultural architecture to which words belong—the exact kind of massive system underpinning the novel itself. This means a text must “pass through the vast, dynamic labyrinth of the translator’s imagination.”4

Yet the result is necessarily ambivalent: “To the extent that the map can change the territory by determining an undetermined space or feature … I have likely both narrowed and expanded Olga’s original text in my translation.” Managing every aspect of a text is fractious and uncertain—a consequence of the translator’s subjectivity, for better or worse.

This uncertainty is at the heart of Croft’s new novel, The Extinction of Irena Rey. The plot centers on eight devoted translators of Polish celebrity author Irena Rey. The author assembles the translators at her forest estate for the purpose of translating her magnum opus, but then she disappears. (Rey is clearly a stand-in for Tokarczuk, though Croft assures the reader that her fictive author is “the opposite.”5)

WITH ITS WHIRRING SALVIFIC HYDRAULICS, “THE BOOKS OF JACOB” CREATES A NEW PICTURE OF TOTALITY. AND IT DOES SO SIMPLY—IMPOSSIBLY—BY HOLDING TOGETHER MOMENTS OF HUMAN FRAILTY.

Perhaps naturally, the novel has plenty to say about translation. Croft writes that translators are like fungi—especially the hyphae of a mycorrhizal network, the threads that “coursed through the soil and stitched the plants and trees of the forest into a united and communicating whole.” They are nexuses in which all things are (or seem) connected. The novel is fascinated with such sites where disparate things come together: from the primeval Białowieża Forest to Berlin Tempelhof Airport, from a writer’s house to Instagram, the protagonists of Irena Rey continually encounter places where “everything was connected to everything else by means of a word.”

But whereas Books of Jacob’s narration illuminates the messianic mechanics of such all-inclusive systems, Irena Rey fixates on their fragility: asking how individuals prevent greater wholes from forming.

Although the book is named after the authoritarian and enigmatic Irena, the story is really that of Spanish translator Emi, the novel’s narrator. Among all the translators, she is Irena’s most zealous devotee; Emi cringes at the possibility of misrepresenting Irena’s language, lashes out at the other translators for doubting the author, and is convinced that the new novel will save the world from climatic extinction.

Emi is less sure about her own work. She’s entranced by the notion that translators, like fungi, “stitch the world into a united and communicating whole,” but she worries: If fungi are “translators of trees,” are they “unwaveringly faithful” or simply parasites destroying their hosts? Translation has a captivating power to connect the individual to the collective, but in doing so is vulnerable to the power of individual subjectivity.

This tension haunts the novel’s narrative method. Irena Rey professes to be the English translation of Amadou, a novel that Emi originally wrote in Polish (despite being a native Spanish speaker). The text is peppered with footnotes by the ostensible English translator, Alexis Archer—herself a character in the novel, Emi’s nemesis. Archer’s notes frequently explain the complexities of translating from Polish to English while reading Spanish between the lines; she often finds no direct translation for Emi’s writing, so she makes creative alterations, becoming an author unto herself. But Archer also engages with the narrative, disparaging Emi’s storytelling and outright disputing her version of events. Though Emi proposes to capture the whole story of Irena’s disappearance, Archer makes the text messy: the narrator isn’t a voice from beyond but a collision of private and public languages.

But of course, it’s all fictional. Alexis isn’t real and Irena Rey (presumably) isn’t a translation: the multiplicity of voices is just one voice, Croft’s. The point isn’t so much the postmodern truth-telling reverie but the question of how many voices it takes to create a picture of reality with language. Maybe there are multiple voices (it feels sexy to say so)—but maybe there’s one synthesizing voice in the end.

Messy individuality is also part of Irena Rey’s failings. While the text boasts an array of quirky characters, it is short on compelling people. Outside of Emi, we’re most acquainted with the too-beautiful, too-online Alexis; Freddie, the philandering pseudointellectual Swedish translator; and Chloe, the stolid French translator (four more translators flit in and out of view, plus a bevy of side characters, but their personalities are ill-defined). Even Alexis, Chloe, and Freddie remain woefully undeveloped because they’re filtered through Emi, for whom they are, respectively, objects only of petulant spite, sophomoric possessiveness, and adolescent infatuation.

In a sense, all these problems are by design. Emi represents the extreme of a translator’s worst impulse: fixation. She throws herself into either absolutist devotion or hatred, too attached to the object of her desire to fit into the networks around her. But although her fixation makes for sharp commentary, it also makes for poor reading. Her obsession is repetitive, not generative; we hear over and over that Irena is immaculate, Freddie is alluring, and Alexis is vapid—but little more than that. This does an especial disservice to Alexis, perhaps the most interesting character in the novel. Although she’s vain, she’s also the boldest, most original theorist of translation in the group, but anytime she begins to voice her thoughts, Emi’s narration cuts her off with nonspecific hatred.

 

Emi’s obsession also dampens the novel’s central mystery. Although Irena’s cryptic disappearance prompts reflections on the nature of translation itself, Emi is so narrow minded that every new revelation appears as over-the-top shock. Often, this means contrived rhetorical questions: “If we knew more than what we strictly needed to know, would it make our translations better? Or would it make them worse?” “Was all of this—everything I held sacred, understanding Irena, doing her language justice, giving her what she deserved—just a game to them?” “Were we mostly responding to the notion that we might not know her every thought, her every move, her every conscious desire, like we had always believed we did?”

The novel wants to suggest that narration and translation can both forge new collective totalities from individual creativity. But these ideas fizzle because Emi, as an individual, cannot narrate them effectively. It is clear that she has an imperfect understanding of translation, has made a graven image of Irena, and has unhealthy attachments to her collaborators—but the reader knows this long before the novel seems to. The result is that her individuality disrupts the wholeness it tries to create.

In her introductory note, Archer suggests that Emi is “completely unequipped to comprehend” her own story. Unfortunately, this judgment is even truer than the novel realizes.

This weakness, however, might be revealing. If The Books of Jacob develops a new totalizing language from individual lives, Irena Rey demonstrates how intractable individuality can be. Translators and writers are rarely tender narrators—they are liable to bias and preference and obsession. They, too, must fight through the “labyrinth of [the] imagination,” find their way through their private language toward a text’s new picture of reality.

For some translators, like Croft herself, individual language helps build a messianic machine. But for others, like Emi, bathos and obsession mean we never escape the labyrinth. 

This article was commissioned by Bécquer Seguín.

 

1. Olga Tokarczuk, “How Translators Are Saving the World,” translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft, Korean Literature Now, June 19, 2019. 
2.  Olga Tokarczuk, “The Tender Narrator,” translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft and Antonia Lloyd-Jones, The Nobel Prize, December 7, 2018. 
3.  Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” in Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt, translated from the German by Harry Zohn (Schocken, 2007), p. 263. 
4.  Jennifer Croft, “The Order of Things: Jennifer Croft on Translating Olga Tokarczuk,” Literary Hub, February 1, 2022. 
5.  “A conversation with Jennifer Croft, author of The Extinction of Irena Rey.” Prepublication advance reading material for The Extinction of Irena Rey, from Bloomsbury. "

#metaglossia_mundus

"Mardi 7 mai 2024 de 14h30 à 16h30

Les interprètes judiciaires en breton de l’ancien régime aux années 30

Thierry Hamon, Professeur de droit Université de Rennes, ex-directeur de l’antenne de la faculté de droit de Saint-Brieuc : « Les interprètes judiciaires en langue bretonne de l’Ancien régime jusqu’aux années 30 en Basse-Bretagne ». Adhérents de l’UTL."

#metaglossia_mundus

"From the pillars of advanced learning and GenAI to the best approach to training search engines, Dmitry Masyuk, Director of the Search and Advertising Technologies Business Group at Yandex, outlines the challenges faced by the industry and how Yandex is empowering its users by combining advanced learning from large models with a search engine.

Integrating AI into search engines has marked a significant shift in the industry. How is Yandex tailoring its AI strategies to meet the unique demands of web users?

Around a year and a half ago, when the first language models like ChatGPT were released, there was a misconception that they might challenge major search engines. However, this was a myth. Regardless of the type of language model or neural network, they lack specific knowledge about the world. While they can articulate impressively on general topics, they falter when asked about specific details or recent events.

Seeing this, we recognised we were positioned uniquely. After all, we have a search engine that knows almost every detail about the world since it continuously takes in new information from the Internet. Thanks to our advanced search engine, we have real-time access to the most recently uploaded online information.

At first, we were unsure about comparing ourselves with OpenAI. However, we are now confident that we can develop similarly sophisticated language models and Generative AI.

Our recent release, Neuro, is a unique hybrid product that combines the power of our proprietary language model, YandexGPT, and our own search engine, which is free for our approximately 100 million monthly users. Currently operating in Russian, users can ask questions in natural language and receive detailed, up-to-date responses. If information is available online, Neuro will provide a single, summarised answer, citing all the sources.

This is the biggest search-related update that Yandex has rolled out in the last 20 years. The launch of Neuro is a significant milestone for us and for the rest of the world.

What challenges does Yandex face when ensuring the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated information?

The fundamental challenge here is clear. In response to a user query, a traditional search engine provides 10 relevant sources on the first page. In this case, the search engine is not really responsible for the content of the sources it provides. However, it’s a whole other story when you’re giving a direct answer to a user’s question. This is why we’re seeing many emerging AI products avoid answering sensitive questions. 

Our aim is to maintain the universality of search products while ensuring accuracy, reliability and ethics in our responses. From the outset, our product development has focused on these principles. Technically, this involves two components.

Firstly, our search engine with 27 years’ experience filters out low-quality resources. When using our hybrid search, the search engine provides material sources, which are summarised by the LLM into a single answer.

Secondly, we train our model to provide balanced, ethical and accurate responses through a team of specialised editors. During the training process, multiple individuals review material to ensure alignment and balance. Plus, Neuro’s answers are based on the information found online and the answer always includes links to the sources used.

In summary, the first component involves providing relevant and high-quality sources, a common practice in any search engine. The second component utilises a team of cross-checking editors to train the model to provide accurate and balanced answers.

How does Yandex differentiate itself in a competitive market?

We are a bit of a technological miracle as we are managing to strongly compete against Google.

Approximately 65% of Internet users in Russia opt for Yandex as their search engine of choice, a well-known fact that is openly available. This showcases our ability to compete with global companies.

Our size is somewhat paradoxically advantageous. While we’re significantly smaller than other giants on the global market, it allows us to be more dynamic and agile. Over the past five years, we’ve nearly doubled our staff, growing to 27,000 employees. However, we’ve managed to maintain a startup mentality, making quick decisions and staying nimble in a rapidly changing market.

So, how are we differentiating ourselves from other global players? First of all, especially when entering new markets, we place a huge focus on product localisation. The first thing we did when we started actively developing in the CEE region was a massive push towards raising the quality of Yandex Search in the Kazakh language. I’m not saying that other global companies don’t care about localisation, but for us this is a number one priority.

We make sure that our AI and search solutions work better in the local language, including, but not limited to, Russian. And we regularly compare thousands of cases to make sure of that.

Another crucial aspect is our talent pool. Russian engineers consistently excel in programming competitions like ICPC where Russia has won 14 of the last 20 years, showcasing our country’s remarkable engineering talent. Obviously, we couldn’t build any of our cutting-edge technologies without hundreds of talented professionals and we’re constantly hiring new ones. We now have 1.5x more ML engineers than we did before 2023.

What future developments can we expect from Yandex in the AI and search engine fields?

We are at the beginning of a new era; a technological revolution that could last five to 10 years. Just as smartphones and the Internet transformed our lives, AI has the potential to do the same, if not more. We’re only one and a half years into this AI renaissance, but already, the potential is staggering for GenAI.

Regarding Yandex’s plans, I’m personally inspired by OpenAI’s advancements and it is important for us to adhere to the new standard of AI it has set. Our strategy is generally to ensure the fundamental AI technologies are on par with global companies in specific domains, or even better.

But there is a challenge that’s being widely discussed within the professional community — monetisation. The question is, how do you make a great product, which is always the first thing on your mind, and also turn it into a profitable business? Sure, there are traditional monetisation approaches like advertising and many companies rely on subscriptions. But we aim to distribute our general-purpose products, like Neuro, for free. We might adopt a monetisation approach at some point, but it’s too early to say.

Speaking of advertising, we’ve been quite successful in ad tech, which we have years of experience and strong expertise in. To put things into perspective, Yandex Direct — our platform for placing contextual and banner ads — has more than 400,000 advertisers who place an average of 4.5 billion ads a day. Around 25 different neural networks are involved in delivering ad impressions to users and our entire Yandex Advertising Network has more than 55,000 partner platforms.

Aside from that, Yandex has quite a few plans on the international market. I believe this year we will be marked by a significant expansion in the non-Russian-speaking world.

In essence, our focus is on improving fundamental technologies, developing sustainable business models, evolving our products and expanding internationally. We are excited about the journey ahead.

What is the potential of AI and what global trends are you seeing that could be key to its advancement?  

The concept of AI is fascinating considering its potential to revolutionise technological advancements. AI essentially makes intelligence cheaper and faster, much like how the Internet made information more accessible.

The efficiency gains from AI are substantial. Over the next five to seven years, we can expect a 3% to 5% increase in daily productivity for the average Internet user. This will be particularly pronounced in fields such as software engineering, customer support and legal professions where AI can streamline tasks by up to around 10%.

Contrary to concerns about job loss, AI is expected to enhance productivity and create new jobs and businesses. Software engineers, for instance, will receive substantial support from AI systems, enabling them to work more efficiently. Additionally, AI solutions will be extended beyond B2C applications. We already offer access to our models via API, allowing companies to seamlessly integrate our AI into their systems.

Ultimately, AI will democratise access to information and services making them more efficient and accessible globally. Whether it’s offering medical advice to remote communities or streamlining business processes, AI will transform industries and improve lives.

What are the latest developments in voice tech in regard to search and AI? 

Voice technology is a fascinating area often overlooked in discussions. It holds immense promise, particularly in the field of real-time translation which is not yet fully developed; however, the market is making significant progress. I’m confident that in a few years there will be technologies capable of providing real-time translation for conversational purposes.

We are already working in this field and have successfully implemented real-time, AI-powered video translation in Yandex Browser.   

We have made significant progress in voice recognition and speech synthesis. The quality of real-time voice-to-text conversion on mobile devices is impressive, thanks to advanced AI and Machine Learning systems.

While voice recognition and speech synthesis have come a long way, there is still much to achieve, particularly in understanding emotions. Smart assistants lack the ability to convey empathy effectively or read emotional content with appropriate intonation.

One of our goals in the Machine Learning department is to improve the emotional recognition capabilities of our voice assistant, Alice. (Its technology was also brought in for the creation of Yasmina, a bilingual AI assistant that speaks both Arabic and English). By the end of the year, we aim to enhance its ability to efficiently interpret emotional overtones and make them more relatable. It is already remarkably human-like, capable of making jokes and offering an engaging conversational experience. It is simply enjoyable to interact with it, however, we still need to improve its emotional understanding capabilities.

Overall, the trend is towards humanising technology. We’ve already introduced features like whispering, allowing the virtual assistant to respond softly when spoken to in a whisper, as well as speaking louder or quieter depending on the distance from the person speaking.

Overall, the field of voice tech is definitely shifting towards a more human-centred approach. It is not only about intonations, but also other aspects of human interactions, some of which may be very subtle. However, when you deal with technology, there remains a gap that needs to be bridged. Despite this, I believe that the voice tech domain will be fully explored within the next three to five years."

#metaglossia_mundus

"OTTAWA — The federal government has been forced to adjust the set-up in the House of Commons and committee rooms after another language interpreter suffered a significant hearing injury.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian PressApr 29, 2024 4:10 PM

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A language interpreter is seen working in an interpretation booth during a news conference in Ottawa on October 16, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA — The federal government has been forced to adjust the set-up in the House of Commons and committee rooms after another language interpreter suffered a significant hearing injury.

The incident occurred April 8 during a closed-door meeting of the House foreign-affairs committee.

"I always do caution everyone to pay attention to that, because we have had many incidents," Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, the committee's chair, said Monday. 

"I certainly hope members (of Parliament) take it more seriously. It's very disconcerting."

The Canadian Association of Professional Employees says the worker has been off for the past three weeks, and the union is blaming inadequate equipment on Parliament Hill for multiple injuries in recent years.

The latest incident involved the Larsen effect, which occurs when a microphone and an earpiece get too close, resulting in sharp, sudden feedback that can be loud or frequent enough to permanently injure someone.

The federal Labour Program, which oversees labour standards in federally regulated workplaces, issued an order about the effect on April 25. 

Written in French, the order noted that that a health and safety officer visiting the Hill the previous week found exposure to the Larsen effect "constitutes a danger" for staff wearing headphones.

"Repeated exposure to the Larsen effect can cause permanent damage to the hearing health of interpreters," reads the order, which calls for changes to how meeting spaces are set up to prevent it from happening again.

House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus notified MPs on Monday morning that tables in committee rooms were rearranged to keep microphones and earpieces farther apart. 

Stickers are now posted where MPs can place unused earpieces, along with printed instructions on how to prevent incidents.Similar information has been posted in Senate committee rooms.

 

Fergus also reminded MPs not to touch the microphone or its stem when it's on, lean in and out from the microphone while speaking or adjust their earpiece volume when sitting near a live microphone.

"The House of Commons works with the Translation Bureau to ensure the best possible working conditions for interpreters," Fergus's office wrote in a statement, noting that this includes measures "at the technological, behavioural and physical levels."

A spokeswoman for the Senate's self-governing body reiterated those points, adding that they are not aware of any recent Larsen-effect incidents in a Senate workplace.

"Despite efforts to minimize the frequency of these events, they continue to occur on limited occasions," the spokeswoman wrote.

Experts have told Parliament that the staff who translate meetings between English and French are being put at risk of injury because they are sometimes exposed to sudden, loud noises even as they strain to hear some voices. 

"Despite an unacceptably high number of workplace injuries, the Translation Bureau has been slow to implement proper measures to protect their employees," the union said in a statement on Saturday.

Public Services and Procurement Canada, which oversees the Translation Bureau, did not immediately provide comment. 

The union said the latest incident occurred during a committee meeting as MPs were drafting a report.

There were two instances of sharp feedback, the union said, and Ehsassi warned MPs to respect existing protocols. 

But that didn't happen, the union said, and a third, very loud episode of feedback followed. The interpreter left work and later sought medical attention.

Ehsassi said he doesn't recall the specifics of what happened, but he hopes the new rules will "insulate against further problems."

 

Bloc Québécois MP Stéphane Bergeron said MPs only learned an interpreter had been injured after the meeting concluded. He noted that his party opposes hybrid sittings, in part because of interpreter injuries.

"We have to do everything possible to ensure the safety of House of Commons staff," he said in French.

"If it's only a matter of keeping our earpiece away from the microphone, that seems like a very modest contribution to bolster the safety of our interpreters."

Conservative MP Ziad Aboultaif said he didn't recall the incident, but these injuries seem easy to prevent. 

"People need to use the recommended equipment, and that will solve the problem," he said.

So many interpreters were placed on injury leave in 2022 that the public service hired contract workers to make up for the staff shortages. 

The shortage has helped constrain committee travel, since a certain number of interpreters are required to ensure MPs' meetings abroad can be conducted in both official languages. 

Last year, the Labour Program found Ottawa was breaking labour laws by not adequately protecting interpreters, following an October 2022 incident in which a parliamentary interpreter was sent to the hospital in an ambulance after experiencing acoustic shock during a Senate committee meeting.

The union had argued the Translation Bureau was not adequately protecting employees who are working in hybrid settings, where people appearing virtually are using substandard devices in breach of committee rules.

At the Senate committee in question, someone was allowed to testify without any headset.

Officials have said that parliamentary interpreters can suspend their services if someone appearing virtually is not wearing a headset that appears on a list of approved devices. 

People have repeatedly ignored the instructions to use an approved device during parliamentary hearings and press conferences.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2024.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press"

#metaglossia_mundus

EP – Multi-annual work program drawn up by the European Parliament to meet its communication needs. Grants to highlight the importance of democratic decisions

#metaglossia_mundus

By Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho "It is undoubted that, in the fast-paced market of technological innovation, a multitude of AI-driven translation tools are undergoing swift development. Recently, SK Telecom introduced TransTalker, an AI-powered translation program capable of providing real-time interpretation in 13 languages.

The Samsung Galaxy S24's Live Translate feature contributes to breaking down language barriers by using large language models capable of understanding, interpreting and generating text that mimics human language across a wide range of languages and contexts.

Breaking language barriers and facilitating communication through AI is capable of bringing huge benefits to many but we should not ignore the matter of the impact of LLMs.

 

Of the roughly 7,000 languages used worldwide, a significant number are at risk of extinction, leading to a gradual decline every year. The United Nations states that an Indigenous language vanishes every two weeks. Languages like Hawaiian, Quechua and Potawatomi are among those already at a critical risk of extinction due to factors like globalization, migration and cultural homogenization. At present, roughly nine languages disappear each year. However, LLMs could significantly accelerate this rate of extinction.

The proliferation of the internet, combined with years of globalization that pushed for the standardization of the English language, made it the global language for business, politics, science, sports and entertainment. So interestingly enough, even though more than half of all websites are in English, over 80 percent of people worldwide don't speak it.

Language development represents one of the most crucial intellectual leaps in human history. It empowers us to generate thoughts, share them with others, think in abstract terms and construct intricate concepts about the world and its possibilities, fostering their progression across generations and geographies. Without language, much of modern civilization would be unattainable.

Yet, this issue extends beyond language alone. If the majority of languages vanish within a few generations, it would cause a collapse in the diversity of thought and identity. Since language and the mind influence each other reciprocally, the loss of languages implies the loss of distinct ways of thinking and experiencing the world.

Language plays a key role in structuring, organizing and processing information. The languages we use affect how we see the world, how we make memories, the choices we make, the emotions we experience and the knowledge we gather.

Not only that, but language also serves as a powerful medium for cultural expression and personal identity. This notion was vividly depicted in the bilingual Korean-English film "Past Lives." The movie shows how a person is deeply linked with the language they speak, where different languages can convey different sides of an individual.

Through its exploration of the untranslatable Korean term "inyeon" — a term linked with a romanticized concept of eternal love — the movie delves deep into the complexities of communication and the cultural significance of language.

Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI had suggested in a TED talk to think of AI as a kind of digital species. AI isn't biological in any traditional sense but they speak in human languages, understand our visuals, process enormous volumes of data, have memory, exhibit personality, show creativity, reason to a certain extent and even make basic plans. He stated that to say AI is mainly about math or code is like saying humans are primarily about carbon and water.

So, as much as AI translation tools are, in fact, facilitating communication on a massively global scale, we should not forget the anthropological value of human language and how much invaluable history the diversity of language holds for humanity.

Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@snu.ac.kr) is studying for a master's degree in marketing at Seoul National University. Her research focuses on digital assets and the metaverse. Joel Cho (joelywcho@gmail.com) is a practicing lawyer specializing in IP and digital law."

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