Tag: writing

Computational Thinking and AI Research in the Humanities

I spent some time this summer doing an extended study on translation using AI. My basic question was whether it could help me document translation episodes that have functioned as knowledge generation. I know the phenomenon exists, as I have examples from my own work. I shared these with the AI and asked it to… Continue reading Computational Thinking and AI Research in the Humanities

Quotidian Dread and AI

It is the kind of dread that seeps. It’s not apocalyptic. Just the sort of thing that can eat up your livelihood. An example. I am aware that my own work, both translations and non-translated writings, was used in the creation of Meta’s AI, without my permission. Like many colleagues, I searched and found the… Continue reading Quotidian Dread and AI

When Fluency Outpaces Understanding

Back from my travels, I’m inspired by Tom Gally’s newer experiments with basic humanities research using AI so have started a couple of iterative experiments of my own on translation topics. Basically, this means asking a research question, setting up some parameters, and then letting the AI work on its own, with reports sent to… Continue reading When Fluency Outpaces Understanding

Dread and Dreams

On my first research visit for The Translator After AI, I came upon two perfect bookend images and managed to get a picture of each. First, “AI Dread,” which I was able to snap even while behind the wheel because traffic was completely stopped. I assume the phone number and invitation is for counseling, and… Continue reading Dread and Dreams

Productive Delay

I stumbled across or — maybe better — waded into the notion of productive delay while writing about the Adriatic as a translational space. I was thinking about how things tend to be when you have to move in and through water, but also how connected it makes everything. Here’s a paragraph from early in… Continue reading Productive Delay

Two Humans Talking Translation

I managed to meet up with Sophie Hughes yesterday, and we had what the Italians call a chiacchierata, a word that feels so right for the unhurried, pure-joy exchange of our talk. I suppose chiacchierare really just means “to chat,” but that English term feels terribly wanting in color and warmth. Also, we both seemed… Continue reading Two Humans Talking Translation

Where You Say, I Don’t Know

Having now written thousands of pages of Sea of Intimacy — I’m trying to make it shorter, I really am — I have to come clean about something. There’s a kind of posing expertise that rubs me the wrong way. The outsider comes in having studied a bit, makes some sententious pronouncements, and then leaves… Continue reading Where You Say, I Don’t Know

From Six Parts to Five (and a pre-part)

I thought Sea of Intimacy was going to have six parts, and I was writing that fourth part for some time as a long-ish essay after George Steiner’s Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, a fine book with a smart contrast at its heart. My two points of contrast were going to be the two would-be masters of… Continue reading From Six Parts to Five (and a pre-part)

The Translator After AI

While Sea of Intimacy proceeds — I expect to have a full draft by later this summer — I seem to have another project developing. Pulling together some of the threads on this site, and looking at other pieces here and here, helped me to see it. At this point, my working title is The… Continue reading The Translator After AI

Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College

I’ve been thinking through the stimulating couple of days I got to spend at the invitation of Kristin Dykstra at St. Michael’s College (SMC) last week. The subject of my talk, and the reason for my visit, was AI and translation. The presentation, entitled “Is It Good? AI Tools, The Practice of Translating, and Inter-cultural… Continue reading Talking Translation and AI @ St. Michael’s College