During the Asia Summit of the Association for Machine Translation in the Asia-Pacific (AMTA) held on March 22–23, new technologies such as AI and blockchain became the focus of attention for attending experts. He Enpei, Chairman of Transn, sent a rational message to the experts and the industry: "The decentralized era of translation is approaching. The development of the industry has three stages: the traditional model, centralized platforms, and decentralized blockchain. From the perspectives of overall industry development and integration with new technologies, embracing them is the industry's stance, but decentralization cannot be achieved solely through blockchain technology—it is more inclined to be accomplished through the collaboration of centralized platforms and blockchain."
Traditional Model Struggles with Capacity Breakthrough; Industry Platforms Begin to Show Empowering Power
If we compare the lifespan of industries, few can rival the translation industry except agriculture. Like China’s farming civilization, the translation industry has continued for thousands of years in a natural state of processing incoming materials. But in the past 20 years, the volume of information has grown 1,000 times, and people’s demands for translation turnaround time have rapidly shortened—from what used to take a month, now it might need to be done in a day. Meanwhile, in those 20 years, the individual output of human translators has only increased two-fold.
The huge disparity between demand and supply output has left traditional translation enterprises anxious and powerless. The breakthrough is imminent—where is the golden inflection point?
The existing market for translation is essentially processing incoming materials—clients provide materials, and translators translate them. The increasingly diverse needs of translation scenarios are hard to meet. The single-form traditional translation model can no longer satisfy the surging demand for translation, and the empowering power of platforms focused on specific scenarios is beginning to show.
Just like the WeChat platform, which connects more people on the same platform while each retains their independent circle of friends. In this way, more and more scenarios can be connected through the platform, and more and more content can also be produced through the platform. The LanguageNet is similar to such a translation industry platform. Unlike social platforms, LanguageNet is independent of B-end, C-end, and client ends—it not only gathers translation companies and translators but also brings together clients, seamlessly integrating the three, opening up the channel between translation demand and production, and multiplying the output of translation capacity. This is the so-called empowering role of LanguageNet. A centralized platform focuses on resources and expands capacity.
The empowering role of the platform becomes even more vibrant after the emergence of AI.
In the past, translations of all difficulty levels were done by humans, often causing people to waste time and energy on a large amount of low-level translation, to the extent that the quality of high-end translation could not keep up. Now, machines handle low-level translation, and translators handle high-end translation—a rational allocation where each does what they do best. Machines cannot interfere with translators’ high-level work, and human-machine collaborative translation has become the mainstream of the industry. The "human-machine co-translation" platform of LanguageNet has also emerged as a result.
With the rapid iteration of new technologies, "human-machine co-translation" is perfectly suited to the task.
Unlike those solely fixated on robot translation, LanguageNet prefers rational R&D and application: humans should not compete with machines for business. Machines serve as the backbone of low-level translation, while translators become the driving force behind high-level translation. The combination of the two forms human-machine collaborative translation.
The concept and application of "human-machine co-translation" mainly stem from LanguageNet’s deep understanding of the essence of translation. Translation inherently possesses non-demonstrability and cultural attributes. Pure machine translation can only replace the signaling and informational functions of language. For communication, expertise, and cultural connotations, machines are simply incapable of replacing humans—that is where human translators hold the most value. Through the LanguageNet "human-machine co-translation" platform, high-end translators can use machine engines to collaboratively process translations, allowing machines to handle simple and stable content, thereby freeing up their translation capabilities and gaining greater output and revenue potential.
The Centralized Era Is Still Gaining Momentum; New Vitality Is Quietly Brewing; The Industry’s Exploration Journey Is Long
Currently, the influence of artificial intelligence in the industry continues to extend and strengthen. In the future, the focusing and empowering role of centralized platforms will undoubtedly become even more powerful. But "distant water cannot quench present thirst"—the centralized era of the translation industry has not yet arrived, and the development of potential market demand remains just the tip of the iceberg. The global demand for scenario-based translation is on the scale of billions, which is enormous.
The exploration of the centralized path in the translation industry is still ongoing, but the "golden age" of translators has quietly arrived, and another vitality within the industry is slowly brewing.
There are millions of translators around the world, each a unique individual, each possessing varying amounts of digital translation materials (such as corpora, terminology, professional field translation materials, etc.). In this era of big data, the added value of translators is being discovered. Through platform empowerment and personal accumulation, translators’ original capabilities are rapidly improving, but the digital value they individually possess has not been sufficiently developed, thereby affecting the output of translation capacity.
At this point, the hidden gene of single centralization becomes apparent: while gathering resources to expand capacity, there is also the potential to lose the maximization of translators’ individual value. Therefore, finding complementary synergy points is equally important—or even urgently needed. The journey of the translation industry exploring new technologies to enhance capacity is still a long one.
Faced with new confusion, where should the translation industry head?
The collaboration and complementarity between centralization and blockchain, addressing each other’s shortcomings, seems more rational—and perhaps this will be the key tool for the translation industry to break through and find new opportunities.
Centralization and Blockchain Collaboration: Complementary Advantages May Become the Industry’s New Direction
As He Enpei explained at the AMTA Asia Summit, translators hold a vast amount of digital assets, which can provide big data support for the automation and intelligence of the translation industry and should also bring rightful returns to the translators themselves. He Enpei stated: "As the industry hopes, blockchain as a new technology may open a window for the translation industry. With the support of blockchain technology, the digital assets of translators can be aggregated, driving the development of the entire translation industry while also safeguarding the rightful rights and interests of translators."
Blockchain is a new application model of computer technologies such as distributed data storage, peer-to-peer transmission, consensus mechanisms, and encryption algorithms. It establishes a centralized trust system and a new value-sharing and distribution mechanism. Every piece of intellectual labor can transform from previously dormant data into digital assets, reflecting value through sharing and generating continuous returns.
Leveraging the persistent recording and tamper-proof characteristics of blockchain, a reliable system of capability and credit can be established, enabling outstanding translators to gain widespread recognition and clear identification, build their own brands, and obtain opportunities and returns that match their abilities.
However, at the current level of development, blockchain has not yet reached the mature technical conditions required by the translation industry. The ideas of Transn are also challenges the entire industry is considering—how can blockchain be applied to maximize its value?
The decentralized or weakly centralized logic of blockchain and the existing centralized system can achieve complementary advantages and develop collaboratively. By integrating blockchain with existing business systems and infrastructure, absorbing the essence for practical use, the new model and technology can be rapidly implemented in the industry.
It is reported that the Language Alliance Chain (English full name: LANGUAGE ALLIANCE CHAIN, abbreviated as LAC) being tested by Transn is leveraging years of industry experience, combined with AI and big data technologies, to experiment with blockchain applications. Adopting the consortium blockchain model, under the premise of ensuring the ownership and rights of data, resources, and information, different translation company nodes on the alliance chain can exchange resources, interconnect data, and share information, forming a value network of complementary advantages and mutual empowerment.
He Enpei also called on everyone at this summit to choose a direction based on the characteristics and trends of the industry, integrating rationally without bias. The traditional processing model of incoming materials is deeply mired in difficulties. The centralized era is still on its way forward. The complementary model of centralization and blockchain is gearing up—and may be the key to helping the industry fully unlock the "gate" of capacity. Whether the translation industry can become a layer of human civilization depends on how the industry acts. The spirit of Transn, which "uses capacity output as the criterion for judgment and strives to seek new vitality for the industry," is worthy of being savored and joined by peers.