Africa-Press – South-Africa. Parliament said it was exploring artificial intelligence (AI) options to help with the live interpretation of its proceedings into indigenous languages.
It comes as political parties put pressure on the administration to expand their translation services to make Parliament more accessible to the public.
The administration said it simply did not have enough interpreters to meet the demands from both houses of Parliament.
Parliament uses around 27 interpreters to translate the business of its plenary sittings but would need more than 40 to cater for both houses when they sit simultaneously.
Some political parties want translation services also to be permanently available during committee meetings too, and not only on request.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)’s Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi and the MK Party’s Sihle Ngubane have suggested collaboration with universities, saying their supporters want to hear their leaders debate in the vernacular.
National Assembly Secretary Masibulele Xaso said freelancers were used when the demand was high, but not all languages could be catered for.
“We are exploring various possibilities, including artificial intelligence for real-time interpretation services.”
The UDM’s Nqabayomzi Kwankwa has, however, raised concern about the accuracy of such applications and said it could be to the detriment of African languages.
“AI is a big challenge when we go out to people and say we need to create jobs and then we rely mainly on technology to get along.”
Deputy Speaker Annelie Lotriet has committed to a comprehensive study of the capabilities of AI and the cost implications.
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