Artful versus utilitarian communication and AI

From Is there no / any longer a reason / need to learn a foreign language?, part 2 by Victor Mair.  He is quoting a piece by John McWhorter:

In Europe, nine out of 10 students study a foreign language. In the United States, only one in five do. Between 1997 and 2008, the number of American middle schools offering foreign languages dropped from 75 percent to 58 percent. Between 2009 and 2013, one American college closed its foreign language program; between 2013 and 2017, 651 others did the same.

At first glance, these statistics look like a tragedy. But I am starting to harbor the odd opinion that maybe they are not. What is changing my mind is technology.

Before last Christmas, for example, I was introduced to ChatGPT by someone who had it write an editorial on a certain topic in my “style.” Intriguing enough. But then it was told to translate the editorial into Russian. It did so, instantly — and I have it on good authority that, while hardly artful, the Russian was quite serviceable.

And what about spoken language? I was in Belgium not long ago, and I watched various tourists from a variety of nations use instant speech translation apps to render their own languages into English and French. The newer ones can even reproduce the tone of the speaker’s voice; a leading model, iTranslate, publicizes that its Translator app has had 200 million downloads so far.

[snip]

Because I love trying to learn languages and am endlessly fascinated by their varieties and complexities, I am working hard to wrap my head around this new reality. With an iPhone handy and an appropriate app downloaded, foreign languages will no longer present most people with the barrier or challenge they once did. 

An additional thought.

There is an element here of distinguishing the art of communication and the utility of communication.  To master the art of communication, you need much more than simply the grammar and the vocabulary.  You need the history and cultural context.

For utilitarian purposes?  Not so much.  We have always gotten by with inartful (though interesting in their own right) Pigeon languages and patois.  Some of which, like Swahili, evolve into their own formalized languages.

AI infused translation Arts are unlikely ever to be completely artful but they certainly can take us a good ways beyond pigeon languages.