The Influence of Speech Translation Technology on Interpreter's Career Prospects in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

As the advancements in artificial intelligence, discussions on whether machine translation will replace human translation are found in the media and the public, but scholars have rarely explored this in research. This paper first reviews the history and recent progress in speech translation technology, and analyzes its merits and limitations. Then, in view of the history and features of the interpreting profession, the paper discusses the influence of speech translation technology on interpreter's career prospects. The author holds that even if future speech translation technology is highly sophisticated, it still cannot completely replace human interpreters. Artificial intelligence is considered as both a challenge and an opportunity for the translation industry. The future trends in interpretation will be mainly human-led and machine-aided. After analyzing the trends and challenges to the interpreting profession, the paper proposes suggestions to interpretation teaching, hoping to give reference to interpretation teachers, learners and researchers.