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“Specialised Translation, Terminology and Terminography in the Age of Generative AI: Keeping Humans in the Loop—Or Not?” Interview with Marek Łukasik  

The doctoral symposium Digital Connections: A Dialogue around Languages, Arts, Cultures, and Technologies, held on 26-27 June 2025 at the University of Genoa, provided for an interdisciplinary exchange among scholars on the role of digital technologies in the humanities. Professor Marek Łukasik’s keynote speech, entitled Specialised Translation, Terminology and Terminography in the Age of Generative AI: Keeping Humans in the Loop—Or Not?, guided us to reflect on the profound transformation taking place in the fields of translation, terminology and terminography, shaped by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly neural machine translation (NMT) and generative AI (GenAI). At its core, the contribution posed an essential question for today’s digital humanists: What is the role of the human expert in an increasingly automated linguistic landscape? 

Professor Marek Łukasik is Vice-Rector for Development and Cooperation and Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Pomeranian University of Słupsk, Poland. Since 2017, he is also Visiting Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and Modern Cultures at the University of Turin. 

Following up on his keynote, this interview expands on the shifting landscape of translation in the age of GenAI. Drawing on Professor Łukasik’s both academic and professional experience, we discuss how translator training is adapting to include new competencies, how AI tools are influencing students’ engagement with knowledge, and what the future may hold for human translators in a machine-enriched workflow. At the intersection of language, technology, and ethics, this conversation offers a valuable perspective for researchers, professionals, and anyone interested about the future of multilingual communication. 

How do you envision the future of the translation profession in light of the rise of artificial intelligence? Have you noticed any significant shifts in recent years?

“Translation is an ever-changing professional activity. Each new technology introduces some shifts in the way translators work. Most of the changes, at least in recent decades, revolve around efficiency: speedy delivery of ever higher volumes of text without quality loss. The introduction of neural machine translation (NMT) and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), now often incorporated into the digital translation environment, has had an impact on the profession, with post-editing becoming an important (sometimes THE most important) element of the workflow. This changes the professional landscape, with professional translators complaining about post-editing tasks, seeing them as time-consuming and not challenging enough (i.e. tedious). I foresee a future in which non-literary translations will be made mostly by machines. In this future, humans will not be part of the loop, and post-editing will also be performed by dedicated, independent AI agents. Possibly, human supervision / vetting will still be in place (at least in some contexts) due to legal requirements. This, however, will require even greater knowledge and skills from translators to be able to pick up nuances that could escape the notice of machines.”

As a professor and researcher in Linguistics, Terminology, and Specialised Translation, how has AI influenced your daily work? Can you share specific examples of how and when you have integrated AI into your professional practice?

“One of the most important changes in my academic work is connected with the teaching part; in the curriculum for translator training I introduced a course dedicated to modern methods in translation and another one focusing on post-editing. The scope of the courses is universal, and it has been quite easy to adapt them to the changing translation landscape (introduction of NMT, GenAI, etc.). More importantly, however, GenAI has had a negative impact on the students’ quality of knowledge. If a student extensively uses GenAI to write a paper, the question that arises is whether they expanded their academic knowledge and acquired the necessary professional skills in the process. So, a lot more university work now focuses more on promoting responsible student independence. This is all the more important in courses where language is the focal point (and language / translation competence is the outcome of the study process). Being a supervisor and a reviewer of BA, MA and PhD theses, I sometimes need to remind students that originality or research (and the thesis text itself) are of utmost importance. Besides teaching, I have also studied various large language models (LLMs) for their usefulness and efficiency in applied linguistics tasks.”

Based on your experience, do you believe there is an optimal balance between human expertise and artificial intelligence in professional settings? How can AI be responsibly integrated into the workplace?

“I think I partially answered this question above. I may reiterate that the professional translation market will seek experts with the highest skills in the areas of language, (specialised) subject matter, intercultural competence and digital literacy, which make up contemporary translation competence. I think that the universal application of AI agents in the translation flow is inevitable (who doesn’t translate their emails automatically if they are written in a foreign language?). The matter of full incorporation of AI technology is another issue and will greatly depend on legal requirements and possibly the gravity of the matter translated (e.g. medical reports). The EU’s AI Act is an important step in safeguarding the responsible use of AI.” 

What advice would you offer to PhD students in Digital Humanities who are actively working with AI technologies?

“Experiment with the technology and publish your research—of course, following appropriate methodological apparatus and scientific rigour. The technology is still relatively new to many, so new discoveries are possible, strengthening your professional persona and extending the range of studies that may provide important answers to questions about AI application—including those linked to its responsible use.”

We once again thank Professor Łukasik for sharing his thought-provoking perspectives and insights, and for taking the opportunity to further expand on them in this interview.


OpenEdition vi suggerisce di citare questo post nel modo seguente:
giadapantana (1 Agosto 2025). “Specialised Translation, Terminology and Terminography in the Age of Generative AI: Keeping Humans in the Loop—Or Not?” Interview with Marek Łukasik  . Digital Humanities PhD. Recuperato il 15 Dicembre 2025 da https://doi.org/10.58079/14geq


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