By Sama Marwan,
As part of the Jazan Book Fair 2025, organized by the Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission, a panel discussion titled “Translation and Artificial Intelligence” was held. Moderated by Mouda Al-Barqi, the session featured literary translator Dalal Nasrallah, who highlighted how AI has revolutionized translation, making it faster and more accurate through deep learning and natural language processing (NLP). She explained that modern machine translation tools rely on AI models capable of understanding context and analyzing texts in a more sophisticated manner than traditional rule-based and dictionary-based translation methods.
Nasrallah outlined the key impacts of AI on translation, including:
- Improved translation quality: Thanks to deep learning, translations have become more precise, with AI models better understanding linguistic structures and selecting words based on context.
- Instant translation, facilitating cross-cultural communication.
- Lower costs and increased productivity, as AI helps companies reduce reliance on human translators for certain tasks, saving time and money.
However, she noted that despite these advancements, AI still struggles with accurately translating literary and poetic texts, due to multiple meanings and cultural symbolism. Machine translations can still produce errors in complex contexts, and overreliance on AI may diminish the role of professional translators.
The discussion concluded with insights into the future of AI-powered translation, where AI is expected to continue evolving, with a focus on adaptive translation that considers cultural and linguistic nuances, making translations more natural and accurate. Nevertheless, human translators will remain essential for ensuring quality and capturing deeper meanings that AI cannot fully grasp.
The Jazan Book Fair 2025 is open daily from 11 AM to 12 AM, except on Fridays, when it operates from 2 PM to 12 AM.
