1) Jeanna Smialek, “What French Romance Novels Could Tell Us About A.I. and Translation Jobs” (NY Times, Feb. 15, 2026; archived):
The European Union, with its 27 nations and two dozen official languages, is a center of the translation and interpretation industry. That is why, in Brussels and The Hague and Paris, a recent nugget of literary news has generated so much conversation.
Harlequin France — purveyor of titles like “Médecins et Célibataires” (“Doctors and Singles”) and “Passion Pour un Inconnu” (“Passion for a Stranger”) — recently confirmed that it would be running tests with Fluent Planet, a company that uses A.I. to make translation cheaper and faster. The move was met with both outrage and resignation within the industry. Translator groups called Harlequin’s decision to cut ties with some human translators “unacceptable.” Translators themselves posted about the “sad news.” […]
Harlequin France’s story is an example of how artificial intelligence is sweeping the translation field, rapidly improving machine translation, particularly for popular language pairs like English and French.
Reports of the death of human translation are exaggerated, as the piece goes on to say. But “outrage and resignation” about sums it up. Thanks, cuchuflete!
2) Kashmir Hill, “They Are in Love but Don’t Speak the Same Language” (NY Times, Feb. 14, 2026; archived):
For many spouses, smartphone use is a point of tension. But for David Duda and Hong Liang, a couple in New Haven, Conn., the technology is so essential that they own eight external battery packs. If their phones die, so does their ability to communicate.
Mr. Duda, 62, speaks English, and Ms. Liang, 57, speaks Mandarin. They rely on a free smartphone app from Microsoft, called Translator, to render a text translation of what they say — like movie subtitles but for daily life.
Though they have been married for three years, they walked down the street on a recent December afternoon with their arms linked like newlyweds. This was out of necessity as much as affection: One of them chatted and navigated while the other’s eyes were locked on the phone, reading translated remarks. […]
Communicating this way requires close attention. Mr. Duda and Ms. Liang can’t half-listen to each other or walk away while talking. There are no shouted conversations from the shower. When they want to really connect, they spend hours on the couch or lying in bed, going back and forth until they feel sure they understand what the other has said.
You will not be surprised to learn that Translator sometimes screws up:
For example, while describing how Mr. Duda greeted her at the airport, Ms. Liang said that she got Covid shortly after her arrival and felt so awful she thought she was dying.
But those were not the words I saw on the screen. The app’s translation had her saying that she got a “new crown” and thought she was going to die. Confused, I asked if she meant that his gesture of carrying the loving sign was so romantic she could die. […]
The app had translated the Chinese term for Covid-19 — novel corona — as “new crown.” Mr. Duda had stayed next to her throughout her illness, she said, and his attentiveness had deepened her feelings for him, which is why she had brought it up.
Still, it’s a happier story. Thanks, Bonnie! (I note with sadness the note about the story’s author: “Kashmir Hill writes about how technology changes how we live. She studied a foreign language in college, which only 6 percent of Americans now do.” Six percent!)
I dare say that a title like Médecins et Célibataires might just as well have been “written” by a LLM in the first place.
One could find out by seeing how many fingers the feisty-yet-vulnerable heroine has.
I knew of a couple who communicated like that. They divorced after a couple of years, but I think there were other factors.
“She studied a foreign language in college, which only 6 percent of Americans now do”
I’m curious what the denominator is there. Is it 6% of all American who attend college, or 6% of all Americans altogether? Only something like 40% of Americans over 25 have a bachelors, which does help make the 6% number a little less horrifying.
Good point. I’ll pretend it’s the latter, which will make me feel better.
She studied a foreign language in college, which only 6 percent of Americans now do.” Six percent!)
That made me wonder if a fundamental part of my undergraduate experience was still going strong after nearly 60 years.
It is. Students are still required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English. If they can do this prior to enrollment they must learn a third language or study an upper level course in L2.
That this sort of requirement isn’t more widespread is troubling.
https://www.dartmouth.edu/reg/registration/language_requirement_2026.html#PolicySummary
@DE: Médecins et Célibataires is the title of a series. I imagine readers get exactly what they expect. And whether any of the characters are polydactylous… I prefer not to speculate.