Translation tools cause concern for journalists in French-speaking Switzerland
Published: Friday, Jul 12th 2024, 14:10
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is both an opportunity and a challenge for the media industry. While media companies are hoping to make savings, journalists in French-speaking Switzerland in particular are worried about losing their jobs due to the increased use of AI-based translation tools.
Mireille (real name known to the editors) has not yet digested the shock. The young journalist worked for a Swiss media group and was responsible for a publication that appeared in French-speaking Switzerland. She was recently made redundant.
Her articles would now be written by German-speaking colleagues and translated into French using AI tools, was the reason given for her dismissal. Thanks to AI, the Group will increasingly do without journalists in French-speaking Switzerland in future, the journalist, who wishes to remain anonymous, added.
"The topics that interest people in French-speaking Switzerland are not always the same as in German-speaking Switzerland," she continues. She believes that the quality and diversity of reporting is at risk.
More translated texts
Journalists from French-speaking Switzerland who work for the high-circulation Migros magazine have heard similar reports. Since the orange giant began restructuring, more articles have been translated from German into French for the French editions and preferred to the suggestions of the French-language editorial team, as the news agency AWP has learned.
A Migros spokesperson rejects concerns that the use of an AI-based translation tool could result in "poor and incorrect" French texts in the Migros magazine. As the magazine is only published once a week, the texts can be easily checked for errors and revised.
The spokesperson also rejects the accusation from the editorial team that a large proportion of the articles published in French-speaking Switzerland are only translations. After all, many texts and content could not be translated one-to-one into French due to the different regional interests, he says.
Advantages and disadvantages of technological change
The question of whether the use of AI leads to redundancies is the subject of controversial debate in the media industry, says Etienne Coquoz from the journalists' association "Impressum". He has not yet heard of any redundancies for which AI has been cited as the reason. However, as little is known about the reasons for the dismissals, this cannot be ruled out.
Coquoz believes that it is not necessarily journalists' jobs that are at risk as a result of technological developments, but rather other functions in the media companies, such as translation and layout tasks.
Last November, however, the Federal Media Commission (FMEC) took a close look at the key consequences of technological change for the industry. Among other things, the FMEC noted that AI helps media companies to save costs. It could also reduce the error rate, promote linguistic diversity and make better use of data.
However, the commission also pointed out dangers such as factual and logical errors that can arise in AI reporting. Knowledge is also lost in editorial offices if competent media professionals leave the industry in the course of restructuring.
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