„Kalba žmogaus ir mašinos eroje“: visų žemynų mokslininkai vienija jėgas, kad prognozuotų, kaip naujos technologijos pakeis mūsų kalbas ir bendravimą

279Terminology | 2021 | 28 “Language in the Age of Human and Machine”: Scientists from all continents are joining forces to predict how new technologies will change our languages and communication1 European Cooperation in Science and Technology, cost “Language in the Age of Human and Machine”: How will new forms of language technology change our communication and language itself? The “man-machine era” is coming: a time when technology will be directly connected to our senses, not just to mobile devices. smart glasses and headphones will be able to translate another person's words, and it will seem as if the other person is speaking to us in our language. but technology will not only mediate what we see, hear and say in real time, it will be increasingly complex conversations with us. a newly established research network, Language in the Human-Machine Era (lithmE), with 52 member countries, explores how ever-changing technologies can change our everyday language use and language itself. lithmE has published an open access report that includes dozens of insights from experts in language technology and linguistics. “lithmE is about the future. It’s about new technologies that are just around the corner, and they will change the way we use language – the way we talk, find information and interact with computers,” says the network’s chairman, Dave Sayers (University of Juveskiu, Finland). Based on current and anticipated technological changes, two inevitable changes in human communication can be described: talking through technology and talking to technology. the first means that wearable devices will take an active part in our conversations. “soon we will not look at the mobile phones in our hands – information will appear before our eyes from small glasses. Together with the new smart headphones, we will see and hear additional information about the world around us: basic things, such as travel directions, and smart1 information already published on the website www.manokrastas.lt. 280 Pavel Skorupa | better content, e.g. automatic translations from other languages. our own words will be reinforced, clarified, translated and subtitled as we speak; and other people will see and hear it,” explains d. sayers. “we will also talk to chatbots on screens and realistic-looking characters in the next generation of virtual reality. The latter will be much smarter than today’s chatbots, ready for challenging conversations – to help think about problems, discuss plans, comfort or celebrate success, says d. sayers and adds: – all this has a huge impact on language.” What will these changes in communication mean for people to identify with specific languages or substitute speaking? How will they affect the way we learn languages, translate texts or write and interpret laws? could high reliance on real-time language technologies change the structure of language? could changes in brain-machine interfaces eventually complement or even replace language? these are some of the questions that lithmE addresses. The four-year networking project, funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, cost, started in October 2020 and will be completed by the end of 2021. It currently has members from all 27 EU countries and representatives from the other 25 countries on each continent. lithmE aims to bridge the gap between linguists and technology experts, so that the former can benefit from better technological insights and the latter from a better understanding of the potential linguistic and societal implications of emerging technologies. There are eight working groups representing different areas of language research: Computational linguistics, Language and law, Language rights, Language diversity, vitality and endangerment, Language learning and teaching, Ideologies, beliefs, attitudes, Language work, language professionals, and Language variation. Members of each working group contributed to the report “The Dawn of the Human-Machine Era”, published on 19 May, which describes the current state of various language technologies and the likely future trajectories – written, spoken, haptic and sign language modalities. “it is the result of a unique cooperation, – says 281Terminology | 2021 | 28 sviatlana höhn (university of luxemburg, belgium), lithmE vice president, co-author and editor of the paper. – lithmE brings together people from different fields of language work. usually these people don't talk to each other. We can see the first results of this exchange of ideas in our forecast report: we were able to capture a variety of opinions and facts in a single document prepared by researchers who would otherwise never have produced a single publication together. it helps us learn from each other, from other communities.” Technology will progress unevenly in different languages The publication must be unique and accessible to language and technology professionals as well as policy makers and the wider public. “we show how various new technologies will quickly change the way we use our language. we discuss the software that enables these new developments, as well as consumer devices such as augmented reality eyewear and immersive virtual reality spaces. We hope to create a clear picture of how all this contributes to a huge change in the way we communicate,” says d. sayers, who was also one of the authors and editors of the report. On the other hand, with exciting opportunities, there will also be challenges. The report addresses important issues such as inequalities in access to technology, privacy and security, and new forms of fraud and crime. "we will face the usual problems, such as who can afford to buy the latest updates. These devices may also not work as well in some languages, and in others will not work at all, – warns d. sayers. – we want to invite people to think well about future technologies. not everyone will benefit equally from these gains, and some will not receive anything at all. progress is usually the fastest in the world's major languages, such as English or Chinese. and sign language is much more difficult for machines to understand, so progress will still be much slower. we hope to encourage our readers to look at inequality when they see these sophisticated new gadgets.” The paper “The Dawn of the Human and Machine Era” can be found here: https://lithme.eu/ publications. It was written by 52 researchers and edited by lithmE Chairman Dave Sayers (University of Jyvaskyla, Finland), Vice-Chair Sviatlana Höhn (University of Luxembourg, Belgium) and Chair of the lithmE Computer Linguistics Working Group Rui Sousa Silva (University of Porto, Portugal). You can find out more about lithmE activities here: https://lithme.eu. presentation translated into Lithuanian by dr. Pavelas Skorupa