The director of the Portuguese department at the University of Macau (UM) stated today that artificial intelligence (AI) is being viewed “as a kind of boogeyman” and is driving students away from the field of translation.
“There is a common understanding that artificial intelligence will end translation. For people working in Portuguese, linguistics, and translation, this cause-and-effect relationship does not make sense,” said João Veloso to reporters on the sidelines of a language contest at UM.
There is a “certain hysteria around the question of artificial intelligence,” he added.
Veloso acknowledged that until a few years ago, translation was the most sought-after area within postgraduate studies, with more candidates than places. “We have noticed that in recent years this is not the situation we are faced with,” he said, stressing a decrease in demand.
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The director indicated that undergraduate students say they do not intend to pursue translation postgraduate studies “because of machine translation and artificial intelligence.” He notes this fear is fueled by “public discourse” from some institutions, publications, and individuals in positions of responsibility.
The official argued that the idea that AI will end the work of translators “has no great foundation” and that both artificial intelligence and machine translation have “many advantages” if they are used as an auxiliary work tool.
“In the Portuguese department, we work a lot with literary translation—we also contemplate technical, legal, commercial translation, etc. In literary translation, artificial intelligence still—or I would personally say never—will reach the level of a human translator,” he reinforced.
According to João Veloso, the department’s courses reach over one thousand students. This includes undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students, alongside students from the Faculty of Law and others attending language subjects offered transversally across all university courses.
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Nine students from various Macau universities participated this morning in the 22nd edition of the Portuguese language eloquence contest, which this year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Camilo Pessanha, a poet who lived and died in the territory.
“This tradition of so-called eloquence contests is very popular in Asia. And in this context, it makes the most sense and has been a success,” added João Veloso.
Despite few students being present and some editions being canceled in recent years, the director noted that it is a “very important” initiative because it “feeds the visibility and interest of Portuguese and Portuguese studies.”
