Translation is an ancient art — as old, perhaps, as civilisation itself. Some of the earliest surviving human texts, Mesopotamian clay tablets, include lists of equivalent words in different languages.
Ancient roots, however, are no impediment to innovation, and the rise of “generative” artificial intelligence (AI) — such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT — has triggered a growth spurt in translation technology. Data provider Statista forecasts that the global market for AI-based translation (specifically “natural language processing”, or NLP) will grow from about $5bn in 2023 to about $12bn by 2030.
One company hoping to cash in is Germany’s DeepL, which has been named as winner in the IT and cyber security category of the FT’s 2023 Tech Champions survey. But it has no shortage of competitors, including not only other start-ups, but also tech giants such as Google and Facebook owner Meta, as well as business software companies including Cisco and Microsoft.