Interpreting and Technology: Is the Sky Really the Limit? (2021)

Abstract: Nowadays there is a pressing need to develop interpreting-related technolo-gies, with practitioners and other end-users increasingly calling for tools tai-lored to their needs and their new interpreting scenarios. But, at the same time, interpreting as a human activity has resisted complete automation for various reasons, such as fear, unawareness, communication complexities, lack of dedicated tools, etc. Several computer-assisted interpreting tools and resources for interpreters have been developed, although they are rather modest in terms of the sup-port they provide. In the same vein, and despite the pressing need to aiding in multilingual mediation, machine interpreting is still under development, with the exception of a few success stories. This paper will present the results of VIP, a R&D project on language technologies applied to interpreting. It is the ‘seed’ of a family of projects on interpreting technologies which are currently being developed or have just been completed at the Research Institute of Multilingual Language Technol-ogies (IUITLM), University of Malaga.

## introduction despite the actual interdependence between technology and the human skills in interpreting @xcite , interpreting technologies are reportedly scarce @xcite and have entered the profession only in recent years @xcite . some studies suggest that interpreters are still largely unaware of them or even reluctant to use them @xcite . major concerns are the loss of quality and the dehumanisation of interpreting that allegedly tend to accompany technological developments @xcite . however, there is a growing interest for language technologies and digital resources in the field of interpreting. see, for instance, the number of related papers presented in relevant conferences and workshops (e.g., the 8th aiic interpreters for in-terpreters workshop, 2017 1 ; the two editions of hit-it foot_0 , 2017, 2019; and all editions of translating and the computer since 2017 3 ). interpreters' attitude has also evolved in recent years. new generations of interpreters seem to be ready to embrace technology (cf. corpas pastor, 2018), although levels of interpreting technology uptake among interpreters remain quite low @xcite ; gaber and corpas pastor, 2020). while technology changes and developments have paved the way for profound transformations in the discipline, the academic debate is just starting to address these changes, their implications and the challenges that lie ahead. suffice to mention seminal contributions by @xcite , @xcite , @xcite or @xcite , and the papers in the volume edited by rodríguez melchor, @xcite . this paper will present a r&d project aimed at providing technology solutions for the pressing needs of both practitioners and trainees. the first part of this paper will describe the project components, and report preliminary results about users' perceptions and system performance. this first project has given rise to several complementary projects that will be also briefly covered in the second part. we will conclude with a discussion of possible new avenues of research that could impact this emerging field. ## vip -voice-text integrated system for interpreters the vip project seeks to provide technology solutions for the pressing needs of both practitioners and trainees. vip integrates a suite of tools to assist interpretation at all phases, plus an open catalogue of interpreting-related technologies (tools and resources). the system architecture is described below. ## conclusion by and large, interpreters seem to view technology as a key asset. their attitude towards interpreter-related technology has undergone a positive development in recent years and they are willing to use technology in their daily practice. the question now is whether academia and developers are prepared to tap into interpreters' needs and provide them with the appropriate tools and resources. at this stage, a handful of thought-provoking questions could be a good starting point. below there is tentative list, including, but not limited to, the following: (i) is interpreting-related technology considered friend or foe?; (ii) will interpreting technologies replace interpreters?; (iii) are interpreting technologies a key asset? if so, for whom?; (iv) what type of technology do interpreters need?; (v) how do interpreting stakeholders interact with technology?; (vi) are interpreting technologies the "new normality" in the sector?; (vii) what is the role of artificial intelligence (ai), automatic speech recognition (asr), speech-to-text (s2t), big data, neural networks, etc. in the future of the profession? too many questions and almost no answers to set off on a journey into the unknown. perhaps the sky will be the limit… or maybe not. funding: this work was supported by the spanish ministry of research (ref. no. ffi2016-75831-p, 2017-2020; pid2020-112818gb-i00, 2021-2025) and the european regional development fund (erdf) (ref. no. uma18-federja-067, ref. no. e3/04/21, 2021-2022).