Automation is creeping into European Union institutions — and translators are among its first victims.
Artificial intelligence has taken its first bite out of the Brussels bubble.
High-tech machines that can run through Eurocratic jargon at record speed have replaced hundreds of translators working for the EU, downsizing one of the largest and oldest departments among the multilingual Brussels institutions.
And this might be just the start, as new AI tools have the potential to further replace humans.
Translators are essential cogs in the complex EU machine, as every single official text must be translated in the EU’s 24 working languages before entering into force.
Until a few years ago, this herculean task was carried out by humans alone. But no longer.
Figures from the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, indicate that its translation unit shrank by 17 percent over the last decade as it expanded its use of machine translation.