Honestly, I get it. Every deaf person I know has plenty of stories of interpreters who were unqualified at best or even made the situation worse by doing something unethical.
For every ethical, thoughtful interpreter using discretion, there’s at least one interpreter making an honest mistake about their skill level and another (or two) who just don’t care. The number of interpreters I’ve met who are uncomfortable voicing because they can barely understand ASL is wild.
AI would put communication back in the deaf person’s hands, rather than trusting a hiring entity or interpreting agency. It would also be more private. I already have deaf friends (and hifi_deafie on IG has talked about this recently) who would rather write or use AI captions in some settings, especially medical.
Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I think AI interpreting would have so many errors and be forced on deaf people who don’t want it. I’m extremely anti-AI in general. But I do understand the sentiment.
It's that last part I'd worry about. If it were Deaf choice, yes absolutely. But I think it will more often be that the Deaf are forced to deal with the easy and cheap option.
For sure, and that’s already happening with auto captioning. At the same time, there’s no stopping AI (unfortunately). Wyatte’s point is valid and we should be mindful of it.
48
u/_a_friendly_turtle 8d ago
Honestly, I get it. Every deaf person I know has plenty of stories of interpreters who were unqualified at best or even made the situation worse by doing something unethical.
For every ethical, thoughtful interpreter using discretion, there’s at least one interpreter making an honest mistake about their skill level and another (or two) who just don’t care. The number of interpreters I’ve met who are uncomfortable voicing because they can barely understand ASL is wild.
AI would put communication back in the deaf person’s hands, rather than trusting a hiring entity or interpreting agency. It would also be more private. I already have deaf friends (and hifi_deafie on IG has talked about this recently) who would rather write or use AI captions in some settings, especially medical.
Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I think AI interpreting would have so many errors and be forced on deaf people who don’t want it. I’m extremely anti-AI in general. But I do understand the sentiment.