A practical session on the work of translation in the age of AI. Using short translation passages and comparative examples, it examines the capabilities and limitations of machine-translation systems and large language models, including the points at which fluent output still requires human interpretation and review.
The session considers how translators assess and revise AI-generated outputs, and develops a practical framework for deciding what can be delegated to an AI tool, what requires substantial human review and what must remain the translator’s responsibility.
Michael Cooperson
Professor of Arabic and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. Graduate of the Center for Arabic Study Abroad at the American University of Cairo (1988) and Harvard University (PhD 1994). Academic interests: pre-modern Arabic cultural history, literary translation, Maltese language and literature. Author of Classical Arabic Biography (2000) and Al-Ma'mun (2005). Co-author of Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition (2001). Translator of Abdelfattah Kilito, The Author and His Doubles (2001); Ibn al-Jawzi's Life of Ibn Hanbal (Sheikh Hamad Award, 2016) and al-Hariri's Impostures (the Maqamat; Sheikh Zayed Award, 2021).