I've been thinking about technology a lot lately. And I felt really scared and disappointed today. Let me first describe my trigger.
A got an ad for an AI that will translate and dub a YouTube video in a language of your choosing. For example, the video is in Chinese, and with a click of a button I can make a creator speak in English. Yes, the voice is mechanic. Yes, it is as accurate as Google translate. But it's good. In fact, its first stages are better than the beginning of any new tech I've ever seen. And it's only for now.
And it makes me think: why bother? Is it all in vain?
In regards to language learning people might say something like this:
Why are you so upset? It's a hobby like every other. Just don't use these tools. You're here to enjoy the process. If something like this can detour you from languages, than you don't love them enough.
And they would be right to an extent. But we're humans, and humans love shortcuts. We were evolved to save energy and come up with the most efficient ways to survive. Like it or not, every survival mechanism is linked with pleasure. It's brain's best incentive to come back and repeat the favorable action. Heck, even memory formation depends on so called "happiness hormones" like dopamine. My knowledge doesn’t come from the mainstream media. I study the brain straight from the scientific articles and medical textbooks*. I'm not an expert, but I made the effort to understand our chemistry.
Now my knowledge scares me to death. I realize how similar we are to machines. How easy it is to tip us in a certain direction and how to do it. Just look how addicted we are to food or gadgets. So, I'm sure that if there's a shortcut, my brain would want to use it.
So, why learn languages and teach them? Let's be honest: if you don't have a clear goal, you would've never learned a language to a high level. I know I wouldn't. I hated English at school partially because I thought it was useless. Then I saw how much content I miss out on. Hebrew is my heritage language. I learned it to a conversational level only when I realized I couldn't explore Jewish culture without it. No matter how much I love language learning, it's hard. And only external goals helped me go through these hard times. If I consume content, I create. If I speak to people… Well, I connect with them. Otherwise, why bother?
I'm young. I'm young enough that I'll easily live past half of this century. If I make smart life choices and have access to a decent healthcare system, I might see the next century too. I was so excited to find out how far the technology would go before I die. But when this technology strips you of meaning, of something so deeply human… It's terrifying. Today I feel more hopeless than usual.
*I'm not a medical student or anything like that. Everything I learned about the brain before becoming a university student was through reading scientific journals on the internet. Now that I have access to the academic library it's easier to keep up with updates and get better learning materials, but I still study by myself.
If you're interested in this topic, I recommend Andrew Huberman. He's a neuroscientist that explains all the complex details in a very simple way.
Headline image by possessedphotography on Unsplash
I understand that fear, but so far AI won't be able to tell about what is talked about between the lines. It's sometimes even difficult for humans. Also there is body language. And why we have some universal things, there is enough that differs by generation, gender, area and individual. Most of the communication is nonverbal. And so far AI translations do lose a lot of individualism and connotations. Surely the technology will improve. And sure there will be plenty of people that will be lazy. And they will lose out of things that were not said directly. And that's because AI actually does not understand anything we say.