Yes, Al turns foreign words into English ones - but it won't replace us human literary translators

Last week’s news about the launch of GlobeScribe, a publishing service offering AI translations of novels for the bargain price of $100 (£74), confirms what we've long suspected that AI is being discussed not merely as a tool that can be useful for professionals, but as something to replace us entirely.

- Daniel Hahn

As a human literary translator, I'm among those facing down that challenge. But we're not replaceable just yet.

One line of dialogue in the story I'm translating reads, in its entirety: "T'es fatigué, toi?" Not the most taxing piece of translation work I've ever undertaken. It’s basically “Are you tired?” - that's the gist. But to give you more colour: the French is very casual, and uses an informal/ intimate mode of address (tu rather than vous). Also encoded within this short phrase is the fact that the addressee is male; we're asking if he’s fatigué, not if she’s fatiguée.