From an “Experience of the Foreign” to an Experience of Alienation? Translating in the Age of AI

Abstract

This article explores the hermeneutic and ethical dimensions of trans­lation in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Drawing on Antoine Ber­man’s concept of the “experience/trial of the foreign,” which conceptualises trans­lation as an ethical and hermeneutic practice, the article examines how AI-assisted translation transforms the experience of translation and the en­counter with the foreign. From the professional translator’s perspective, AI trans­lation not only engenders alienation from the product of their labour in the Marxist sense but also introduces an alienation caused by the prior ap­pro­priation of foreign-language text content by AI systems. Translators must therefore return to the original text and reconsider it through the “lens” of AI-generated text. This fundamentally alters the translation experience and is likely to reshape the relationship between languages and cultures.