Volunteer interpreter Bruno Verduzco listened as the young mother on the phone told how the FARC beat, raped, kidnapped, and threatened her. As she spoke, Verduzco, a Mexico City native, Googled terms he missed. Colombia has its own words for the FARC and the guerilla group’s crimes, and if Verduzco got any of them wrong, the woman’s case for asylum could be rejected.
In many contexts, human interpretation is a profession of the past. In an ad for Apple’s new Airpods Pro 3, which came to stores on Friday, the technology helps a woman buy carnations from a Spanish-speaking vendor. A Portuguese-speaker and an English-speaker, both donning a fresh pair, talk business over a meal. At $250 apiece, AirPods Pro 3 uses Apple Intelligence to translate a foreign language live, in a human-like tone, into the wearer’s ear, toning down the speaker’s voice at the same time.
The possibilities to navigate foreign countries, conduct business, and communicate with loved ones are vaster than ever. But some fear Apple’s new savvy machine will become a cheap replacement for something only humans can do.
“The news about Apple’s new headphones has us a bit worried,” said Maria Juega, a legal interpreter.
Juega’s fears are warranted. In recent years, the U.S. government has started using AI-powered translation to communicate with immigrants. In 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol created an app to help officers communicate with non-English speakers entering the U.S. In 2019, ProPublica published an internal manual from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that tells officers how to decipher the social media posts of non-English speakers. “Go to translate.google.com,” it reads. “Paste the text that needs to be translated to English.” “Click on the blue ‘Translate’ command button.” “Review results.”
AI-powered translation can move a backlog of immigration cases forward. In the U.S., the demand for interpreters is constant, fluctuating based on circumstances abroad. When the Taliban took over their country in 2021, many Afghans sought asylum in the U.S. A shortage of Dari- and Pashtun-speaking interpreters slowed their cases.
Though the new AirPods are only fluent in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and French, the technology signals hope for immigrants who speak lesser-known languages. “It’s difficult to find somebody that can interpret from Wolof to English,” said Mary F. Chicorelli, founder of Equal Access Legal Services, a Philadelphia non-profit that represents immigrants. “Or something called Soninke,” she said, referring to a West African language with no written form of its own.
Chicorelli has long relied on Google Translate for basic communication. The technology allows her to write to clients in their native languages to confirm consultations or notify them of a green card approval. But she is skeptical of AI’s ability to handle more important tasks, like preparing for asylum interviews or verifying key facts.
If an interpreter mistranslates an immigrant’s story, “their entire case could be blown,” she said. The stakes are especially high for asylum seekers, who rarely know English and are often fleeing dangerous circumstances. In their hearings, they rely on interpreters to get their stories right.
To request asylum, each applicant needs to prepare a document explaining her reasons for seeking refuge. For a case to make it to court, this document must be written in clear, well-formatted English. Asylum seekers depend on interpreters long before they make it to court.
“The nuances of interpretation are extremely important for translating how a person’s experience fits into—or doesn’t—the very specific statutes that govern asylum,” said Amelia Frank-Vitale, an anthropologist and immigration scholar. For someone to qualify for asylum, they must fit into a persecuted group. “It isn’t enough to rise to the level of asylum under US and international law that people want to kill you,” Dr. Frank-Vitale said.
In this context, details matter.
An example: In Spanish, jefe means boss. In Mexico, it sometimes means “father.” In an asylum case, a mistranslation of jefe could nullify a plea for asylum due to familial or gender-based persecution.
“The translation aspect of it, in my opinion, is the easiest part,” Verduzco said, reflecting on his work for Solidaridad Central Jersey, a Pro-Se clinic for asylum seekers. “I do fear that not a lot of people can interpret, and even less can interpret in a cultural sense.”
Live translation technology is not novel. But with Apple’s new product, it is easier to use than ever. The wearer simply taps a button or says “Siri, start Live Translation” to activate the setting. Human interpreters are wary of the risks that come with machine replacements. “We think that in the legal context, our jobs will keep being necessary,” said Juega, a court interpreter. “Even if certain aspects will be made easier by the new technology.”
