- We, in languages, are way ahead of the game.

Do you remember back when Babbel came out?

Duolingo?

- [David] Yes.

- But also all the translation software, that happened early on in my academic career.

And all of a sudden, everyone in languages was like, "We're out of a job, because now students can use translation software, they don't even need to learn the language."

Not so.

We have seen that that's not been the case.

And so what did we do?

We pivoted from seeing it as a threat to seeing it as an absolutely invaluable tool.

We could teach students how to use the translation software, how to critique it, how to understand the shortcomings, and thereby gain a greater understanding of the language.

We found that students actually became more proficient and more confident in languages when they learned how to use, critique, and sometimes manipulate the translation software.

I think we're gonna see exactly the same thing.

We're gonna see ways of studying stylistics.

We're gonna see ways of studying ideological points of view that are made possible because AI can allow us to manipulate and look at text in different ways.

I think it's an incredible opportunity that needs to be carefully managed and understood.