AI Translation

DH2026 is running real-time AI translation across the programme. This is the first time we have tried it at this conference.

The field has been talking about multilingualism for years. There is a Multilingual DH SIG. Calls go out in several languages. People write papers about how much of digital scholarship happens in English. But the annual conference, which is where the field actually meets, has stayed a mostly monolingual room.

We are hosting in Daejeon this year, and a large part of the regional community does its scholarly work in Korean, Chinese and Japanese. Our theme is Engagement. It seemed like the wrong year to leave that gap alone.

So we are trying it. Whether it works well is an open question. Live academic sessions are hard on this kind of technology, and DH talks in particular are full of proper names, project titles and vocabulary that nobody outside the room uses. We expect the results to be uneven. We think it is worth finding out.

The platform

We are working with EventCAT, a real-time interpretation and subtitling platform built by XL8 Inc. It has been used at international academic, government and industry events, including Horizon Europe workshops and medical symposia.

Languages

EventCAT handles a wide range of languages. For DH2026 we are running four: English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese, which are the presentation languages of the conference. If you need a different language, ask one of the on-site staff. We will try, but we cannot promise it will be possible.

How to use it

Every session room has its own translation link, and we will post it in the room. Open it in a browser on your phone, tablet or laptop and choose your language. There is nothing to install. Keynote sessions will also carry subtitles on the main screen.

If you are presenting

Use the microphone and speak at a steady pace. The system works from the audio signal, so how clearly you speak into the mic affects how well the translation comes out.