Abstract:
In light of predictions of job displacement in translation (and beyond) due to generative AI, and the urgency of sustainability in world on course for temperature rises above three degrees, some colleagues and I proposed an adaptation of Elkington’s (1997) triple bottom line from business ethics to be utilised for technology evaluation. This talk introduces our proposal, some related previous research, and what it might mean to evaluate while giving equal weight to people, planet, and performance.
About the Speaker:
Joss Moorkens is an Associate Professor at the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies in Dublin City University (DCU), Science Lead at the ADAPT Centre, a member of DCU’s Institute of Ethics and Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, and board member at the European Masters in Translation Network. He has published over 60 articles, chapters and papers on the topics of translation technology interaction and evaluation, translator precarity, and translation ethics. He is General Coeditor of the journal Translation Spaces, coeditor of a number of books and journal special issues, and coauthor of the textbooks Translation Tools and Technologies (Routledge 2023) and Automating Translation (Routledge 2025).
Background Readings:
Moorkens, J., Castilho, S., Gaspari, F., Toral, A., Popovic, M. 2024. Proposal for a Triple Bottom Line for Translation Automation and Sustainability: An Editorial Position Paper. Journal of Specialised Translation 41, 2-25. https://www.jostrans.org/article/view/4706/4263
Moorkens, J. 2022. Ethics and Machine Translation. In Kenny, D. (Ed.). Machine translation for everyone: empowering users in the age of artificial intelligence. Berlin: Language Science Press, p121-140. https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/342
Schwartz, R., Dodge, J., Smith, NA., Etzioni, O. 2020. Green AI. Communications of the ACM 63(12): 54–63. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3381831