Providing accurate translations for English resources is often difficult and tricky, most especially when many technical terms in the field of technology and the digital do not necessarily have corresponding or literal translations in other languages. The need for such translations, however, continues to be necessary in order to reach a wider audience in our diverse region.
Our resource on practicing digital hygiene, for example, is available in multiple languages. The Chinese translation, in fact, was worked on by the OCF Lab in Taiwan, which is part of the Coconet community.
In line with that thrust, the three-part series on artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of Southeast Asia by Jun-E Tan is now available in Thai. This AI series was voluntarily translated by Teerada Na Jatturas, a consultant with UNESCO with a postgraduate degree in Digital Communications from the University of Westminster.
Here’s what she had to say about her experience in translating the series from English to Thai:
“Trained as a social scientist in the political economy of communication, I see several similar points in the AI series and my thesis. This helps speed up the translation, as I’ve already learned many technical terms while expanding my ICT vocabularies at the same time. The AI series echoes my thesis’s findings on the increased control of the internet orchestrated by authoritarian states (in Asia in particular) and neoliberal media and technology companies. There is a need to lay out the foundation of cybersecurity and online privacy in scholarly curricula and create alternatives to mainstream platforms to maintain anonymity and the ownership of end-user data.
“This project was a great way for me to delve into a new topic such as AI and society. I know that working on the project provided me with an insight into the current development of AI uses in the Southeast Asian region, which has affected cultural, political and civil rights of the people (particularly dissidents, girls, and women). It also gives me new ideas on potential projects either in my academic and professional endeavors in the future.”
Check out the Thai translation of the AI series below:
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- Part 1: ปัญญาประดิษฐ์ (Artificial Intelligence: AI) กับข้อกังวลด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนในสังคมเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้: ภาพรวม
- Part 2: เราจะอยู่ร่วมกับ AI ได้หรือไม่: ปัญญาประดิษฐ์ (Artificial Intelligence) กับผลกระทบต่อสิทธิทางเศรษฐกิจ สังคม และวัฒนธรรม
- Part 3: เมื่อ AI กลายเป็นอาวุธที่มีผลกระทบต่อสิทธิพลเมืองและสิทธิทางการเมือง
Teerada elaborates further on the need for resources to be available in more languages other than English in order to educate more in the region about AI and machine learning. “Dissidents, refugees, people with special needs, girls, women and other minorities, who unfortunately still lack English language skills, should learn about online privacy and digital rights in their own languages, so that we and they can defend their rights from being exploited by states and corporations,” she said.
Thank you to Teerada for your work! If you are also interested in helping to translate our resources from English to a regional language, please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.