Will AI's make language learning useless?

Submitted by IntroVertu t3_127nxl4 in singularity

Right now, I'm wondering about the future impact of AI development. One of the applications I can see is learning languages and communicating with someone who speaks a different language.

I think that in the future learning a new language will no longer be a skill but rather a hobby as we will be able to speak via Ai's which will have the capacity to perfectly and instantaneously translate what we say (with the right tone).

What is your opinion on that ? Do you think that in the future, people will speak through AIs and will therefore be able to communicate directly orally with anyone in the entire world population? And then no one (or almost) will make the effort to learn foreign languages anymore ?

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Veleric t1_jeexx36 wrote

I think Noam Chomsky might murder you if he read this ;)

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Veleric t1_jeezuqn wrote

Replying to IntroVertu (#2,532,960)

He's one of the world's most renowned persons regarding linguistics. He's also expressed strong negative opinions on AI in general. It was just a lighthearted joke, but worth looking into. He's done a video interviews/panels on AI recently. I think he's mistaken in many regards on this topic, but still interesting to hear his viewpoints.

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czk_21 t1_jef00f5 wrote

in couple years human translators will be pretty useless, in sense that AI will do the job same or better but it knowing more languages will still be valuable skill in general to better yourself or if you want to speak normally with native speakers, it always makes other people glad when foreigner speak with them in their language

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ertgbnm t1_jef18w7 wrote

Definitely not.

It will make translators as a profession useless. And it will make working with people who speak different languages easier. But I don't see how it wouldn't still be a valuable skill. There is a big difference between connecting with someone face to face vs through a translator. I'd argue that it's going to make language learning an even more accessible and rewarding hobby/skill than it already is.

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kikechan t1_jef44s1 wrote

Until I have a hologram for my mouth and a real-time voice synthesizer and perfect language translation, no. I don't wanna be a dork that reads off a phone, thank you.

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FoniksMunkee t1_jeff2h4 wrote

Short answer. No. It is still useful to learn another language. Language isn't just about direct translations. It actually rewires your brain - you think differently in another language. It gives you insight to the culture. It's also super annoying when you are stuck in local government office and your damn phone / AR headset / whatever, runs out of batteries.

If you are just travelling to another country for a holiday - AI translation is probably going to be the best bet. If you are going to move to another country, or get in a relationship with someone from another country - learn their language.

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Good-AI t1_jefgli4 wrote

Depends what you mean by learn. A sufficiently advanced AI will be able to figure out how to upload data from any topic we want to be proficient in directly into our brain, and we immediately become able to have the skills we want, incl speak a language.

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czk_21 t1_jefqfxe wrote

Replying to kikechan (#2,534,926)

of course I have read a LOT of translated text, english is not my first language

and yes it will, maybe I could use better term obsolete, how would they be needed when AI can translate better, cheaper and much faster? its same with any other task in which humans will be outperformed

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Relevant_Ad7319 t1_jeg68sg wrote

If you truly want to know a culture and if want to built relationships with people that speak other languages than language learning is very useful but if you only want to get information from another language that not

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kolob_hier t1_jeghvaq wrote

Depends on what time frame you’re referring to and what direction humans branch off of.

If you’re talking about next 10 years, probably not.

Once a neural interface that transmit data to the brain directly become a common place (I feel like they are inevitable, but I have no idea the timeline), then it would probably get rid of spoken language as we know it. You could speak through those interfaces much more accurately and quicker.

I would guess that within 10 years though we will have AR become more common place. If I go to china and someone speaks mandarin to me I would imagine my AR glasses would just show essentially subtitles as they speak. Greatly decreasing the need to ever learn another language, but still it would be a barrier to fully connection with a people.

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