SEMINAR: “From Babel to Harmony: The Evolution of Intercultural Collaboration with Machine Translation”

We cordially invite esteemed teachers and students to attend the seminar titled “From Babel to Harmony: The Evolution of Intercultural Collaboration with Machine Translation.”

Abstract:

In 2002, we conducted what was likely the world’s first full-scale collaboration experiment using machine translation. Students from Japan, China, South Korea, and Malaysia worked together to develop open-source software, relying on machine translation. It was during this time that the term and concept of “intercultural collaboration” were born. However, the reality was that the students struggled with language barriers, as if wandering around a metaphorical Tower of Babel. Twenty years later, with the advent of ChatGPT, the challenges of conversation translation are being overcome. At last, the technology has progressed to a point where intercultural collaboration is possible while respecting linguistic diversity and is no longer hindered by the curse of the Tower of Babel. In this talk, I will reflect on our 20 years of research. I will particularly highlight the 2002 intercultural collaboration experiment, the five-year agricultural support activities in Vietnam using the Language Grid from 2011, and the remarkable translation capabilities of ChatGPT.

Speaker Information: Prof. Toru Ishida:

– Honorary Professor at Kyoto University and an IEEE Fellow.

– Served as President of IEICE from 2021 to 2022, and was a member of the Science Council of Japan from 2011 to 2017.

– Has worked in the field of “Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems” since 1988.

– Led several research projects, including “Digital City Kyoto and the Language Grid.”

– Has been a visiting professor at TUM, Paris 6, University of Maryland, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and received the Distinguished Science Professorship at HKBU in 2014.