By: Yoyo Rita
Linguistic interpretation has been documented to date back as far as the ancient empires of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.[1] Since then, it has served an important social and political function in allowing different cultures, and indeed empires, to reach accords, negotiate peace, or express discontent. Indeed, one can imagine that linguistic interpretation probably existed as an informal practice for as long as different languages and cultures have existed side by side—arguably as far back as linguistic diversity itself.
In modern day, professional human interpreters are trained, certified, and educated in the field through university programs, certification exams, and applied professional experience. As we interpreters love to remind any who will listen, interpreting is NOT just being fluent in two or more languages. Interpreting requires many other skills, such as: cultural fluency between source and target cultures (including regional subtleties), highly specialized terminology (from obscure street talk to rhetorical legal jargon), excellent memory and retention, and emotional-cognitive control in high-impact situations.
Now we arrive in the year 2026: The field of interpreting faces rising competition with generative AI models. AI companies are releasing ever-advancing interpreting models intended to provide near-simultaneous interpretation of conference speakers, healthcare patients, and even participants in legal proceedings between many languages. We are fast approaching an ethical and practical quagmire for interpreting clients.
Considering this modern dilemma, why should professional human interpreters be hired over opting for AI tools? As one of those humans, I have a few good reasons why!
- Ethics
Professional human interpreters study and practice a code of ethics and uphold best standards of practice—established by industry leaders like NAJIT,[2] ATA,[3] and NCHIC[4]. Many such codes emphasize the importance of accurately representing one’s qualifications, ensuring accuracy, seeking out continuing education, and maintaining subject-matter expertise.
AI models, meanwhile, do not hold themselves to any such code. When they are forced to make an ethical decision, it is unclear what ethical distinctions they will make—or fail to make. For instance, it is hard to imagine what “continuing education” would look like from an AI model, other than absorbing data from the internet en masse and having frequent hallucinations[5] based on this conglomerated data.
Furthermore, interpreting requires the interpreter to make frequent and important ethical decisions, such as:
- “Should I correct the record if I realize I made a mistake?” (hint: Yes.)
- “Am I qualified to do this deposition, even though I am unfamiliar with the witness’s regional dialect?” (hint: Probably not, speak with your client first.)
- “Do I need to seek out a specialized term’s definition and possible translations before proceeding? The word is new to me, but I can kind of surmise its meaning.” (hint: Yes.)
- “What did that witness just say? I think it was ‘psychological,’ but it also might’ve been ‘physiological’.” (hint: Ask for repetition.)
If you choose AI interpreting over a human, such subtleties will likely be bulldozed and ignored in favor of AI’s “best guess” linguistic solutions.
- Confidentiality
Professional human interpreters uphold confidentiality and enter into legally binding confidentiality agreements (such as an NDA) whenever required. Us professionals can (and do) safeguard your company’s confidentiality, thus maintaining the integrity of your workplace investigations, HR inquiries, and other sensitive matters.
AI interpreting models, meanwhile, feed data into their company’s massive servers and super computers. While some AI products offer enhanced confidentiality features, we are still living in the regulatory “Wild West” of AI and its consumption/integration of user data[6]. This leaves your company’s confidentiality largely at the discretion of the massive AI corporations, who have little or no legal restrictions on how they harness users’ data.
Would you rather entrust your company’s sensitive information to a professional, trained interpreter with a legally binding NDA, or to the “good word” of a super-powerful AI corporation with no legal obligation to you?
- Accuracy
Professional human interpreters study, practice, and constantly finetune their linguistic-cultural skills to ensure accurate interpretations. Their ongoing, lifelong studies and exposure to multiple cultures and languages inform their interpretations: subtleties, implications, and question marks are left on, even when confusing or outrageous. After all, human communication lives and breathes in the gray area. We rely heavily on tone, implication, and cultural context.
Meanwhile, AI models absorb lots of data very quickly and seeks to provide satisfactory output, regardless of its accuracy.[7] It cannot reliably detect, nor understand, human emotion, intonation, or insinuation on a cultural-linguistic level.
Simply put, human interpreters are like Renaissance painters, whose linguistic strokes aim to paint a detailed picture of a speaker’s register, intent, and word choice. Meanwhile, AI interpreting models are like connect-the-dots painters, seeking to paint barely comprehensible pictures based on their derivative approach.
Which options sounds better to you and your company? I thought so. Human interpreters have and always will be the gold standard for reliable, accurate, and professional interpretation!
[1] https://www.translorial.com/reference/a-brief-history-of-interpretation-and-translation/
[2] https://www.najit.org/about-us
[3] https://www.atanet.org/
[4] https://www.ncihc.org/
[5] https://suprmind.ai/hub/ai-hallucination-rates-and-benchmarks/
[6] https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2024/01/ai-companies-uphold-your-privacy-confidentiality-commitments
[7] https://boostlingo.com/news/ai-accuracy-study/