“AI 시대에 인간 번역은 사라지지 않는다, 다만 과거의 번역은 사라진다”

A French literary translator named Jeane Ren stated that human translators will not vanish in the age of AI, but rather, older translations will disappear. This argument was presented during the 2026 World Conference on Translation, held in Seoul's Grand Mercure Empire Palace in the morning of the 28th.

The French translation of the Korean fantasy novel "Biscuit" (Kim Seon-mi) proved to be the most challenging for Ren, as she explained. Cultural and ethical differences between languages often lead to such complications. For instance, a local publisher expressed concern that readers might find a passage about a "life diary" humorous, while another sentence about a father's scandal was deemed an "expression of hatred" and requested for deletion.

Ren admitted that none of these changes were made to the final draft and that she made compromises in some translations. As literary works from Korea gain more traction globally, the complexities of translating Korean literature become more apparent. The 2026 World Translation Conference aimed to address this issue, bringing together translators and related professionals from both domestic and international backgrounds.

At the conference, Polish professor Ujestna Naiabar Miller from Warsaw University emphasized that while literature's international reach is expanding, the scope of literature itself in foreign countries is limited. Many translation students are more interested in pursuing careers in TV series or films rather than translation. Miller noted that among the Korean graduate students at Warsaw University, only about 31% showed interest in literature, and most of those who considered translation as a career path aimed for popular visual content like TV series and films.

The conference also addressed the growing influence of AI in the translation field. Professor Itambye from Korea University of Foreign Studies highlighted the need for human translators to move beyond the idea that "machines are better than humans" and instead define the uniqueness of human translation as a "moral event." She argued that translators must constantly consider the ethical implications of their choices and how these choices shape the foreign audience's perception of the source material.