Translation Studies

Artificial Intelligence and Translation: New Pathways for Theory and Practice

The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming the landscape of translation, interpreting, and accessibility in unprecedented ways. This special issue investigates how these technologies and their applications reshape intercultural communication, affect the translator's role, and challenge longstanding assumptions about meaning-making, agency, and the limits of linguistic and cultural representation. While automated translation and AI-assisted tools offer new efficiencies, they also raise concerns over cultural homogenization, perpetuation of bias, fabrication, misuse, and ethical accountability. In multilingual societies and global communication ecosystems, translation is not merely a linguistic act but a culturally situated practice; GenAI complicates this further by situating translation within networks of platforms and persons as well as flows of information and data. This special issue aims to gather a range of critical, conceptual, and theoretical contributions that examine the implications of AI for translation and interpreting theory and practice. It seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue that bridges translation studies, cross-cultural mediation, and numerous other areas affected by the rapid advances in GenAI.

We welcome contributions on (but not limited to) the following themes:

• Human-AI collaboration in translation and interpreting studies
• Translator agency in AI-assisted workflows
• Prompt engineering and human-in-the-loop
• Posthumanism and machine agency in translation
• Algorithmic bias and explainability in multilingual translation
• Accessibility and disability in AI-mediated translation and interpreting
• Translation equity for low-resource or minority languages
• Ethical and social implications of translation in the era of AI
• Cultural specificity, translation, and AI
• The future of translation in industry and institutional settings

Please note that, in line with the aims and scope of the journal, Translation Studies will not consider submissions dealing with translator and interpreter training.