First, we need to choose a topic because AI couldn’t choose for us without our input. Topics crossing our mind ranging from commercials for Monterey Language Service, trends for the translation and language industry, learning to ride bicycle, birds nesting, etc. The videos generated from these topics were unadorned, so we finally decided to make it easy for AI. We chose a topic that has a lot of materials for AI to go on — what is Genesis: A Creation of the Earth Story.

As predicted, the outcome is enjoyable. This video, showcasing the wonder of creation in seven days, the birth of the universe and the origin of life, is a testament to the union of art, technology, and imagination.

Please see the video here: https://youtu.be/u7zpyToo_Ls

We also are in the process of translating the English transcript to create traditional and simplified Chinese versions of the video.

The Process of Making the Script

The next step is to create a script. We wanted it to be detailed, blending poetic imagery with vivid descriptions, so we wrote a script based off Psalm 104 in the bible. The script emphasized a resonant style of classic religious art and modern fantasy aesthetics.

The voice talent came from the AI’s databases. The narration was not exactly what we fed the AI to, instead the AI used our prompt as a reference and generated the transcript read by the AI.

Creating the script using AI was a process of trial and error. Not specifying exactly what should happen in each scene would leave everything up to AI. At the same time, depending on the program there’s a limit to how much information we can feed the AI, so we can’t be overly detailed either. It’s best to think about the AI as someone you’re trying to explain your vision to.

We made all the explanations specifically so that the AI video generator understood and was able to make the video. All the necessity was to give information through human prompts to AI and let it generate everything from its databases.

Getting a result was quick, but the first version that came out needed some work, so it was tweaked by giving the AI notes on the general style of the video. We can specify a western animation style, eastern animation style, or black and white, etc.

After this, the prompt was further edited by dictating each scene. For most video generative AI, this is how you can make sure that the progression of the video happens the way you imagined it. See our dictation of scenes at the end of the blog.

The Potential of Creating an AI Movie

We think AI has chosen a wonderfully vibrant voice who delivers the excitement of first creation and keeps the audience captive. This voice brings out the soul of the video and it’s touching and not mechanic as we thought what AI creation would be like. AI makes videos that are human like. The AI potential is certainly there.

However, as with everything AI, there’s a lot to consider. Right now, AI can handle short, prompt-based videos with simple concepts, but it’s hard to tell what full-length movies made by AI would turn out to be like. There’s a lot that goes into making full movies, so it’s hard to imagine that AI can replace humans or save a lot of human time during the process.

However, this short video we made certainly shows proof of the concept that AI has the potential in making full movies that we are used to watching.

AI as a Creative Partner

After we put the script into the chat box, AI analyzed the script, prepared the video materials and began generating. The whole process took no longer than ten minutes.

The video of Genesis: A Creation of the Earth Story contains both narration and visuals. It’s amazing to see AI can generate a deep, resonant male voice paraphrasing the script, guiding viewers through the journey. The video is rife with video footage with some illustrations that align closely with the scenes described in the script. From the light breaking the darkness to sun and stars, and to the peaceful creation of humankind, each moment is visually represented.

This video is a celebration of creative collaboration between humans and AI. This project highlights how AI can be an invaluable partner in creating artistic projects. From generating visuals to refining language, AI helped us bring our ideas to life.

Despite the wonderful AI work, we noticed some flaws in the video: lack of a cover page and one unrelated B roll. We tried at first to further edit the prompt, telling AI to add a cover page and a title, however, the feedback was “Please clarify ‘subtitle’”.

Making AI delete the unrelated part was not smooth too, so we had to import the video into our usual video editor Adobe Premier Pro to manually delete it.

The conclusion is: Smooth and understandable conversation between humans and AI still has a long way to go. Yet, AI’s strength will grow with user input and will become better and better as long as it is continued to be used.

“Genesis – A Creation Story

Style: Epic, painterly, awe-inspiring, vibrant, and emotionally resonant. Think classic religious paintings combined with modern fantasy art.

Subject: The creation of the universe and life, in seven distinct scenes, each representing a “day” of creation.

Scene 1: Let There Be Light: Focus on the transition from absolute darkness to the first light. A gentle, almost imperceptible breath of color emerges, pushing back the void. Hues of amethyst and rose paint the darkness. Emphasize the quiet power of this moment.

Scene 2: The Firmament: God’s hand sweeps across the canvas, creating the heavens. Waters are separated, forming a shimmering dome. Celestial mist swirls and coalesces. Angels, depicted as beings of pure light, watch in silent awe.

Scene 3: Earth and Seas: The waters below are gathered, and dry land rises. Focus on the emerging continents, still wet and glistening. The land is bare but expectant.

Scene 4: Vegetation: An explosion of life! Plants, grasses, trees of all kinds burst forth. Focus on vibrant greens, from tender shoots to majestic trees laden with fruit. Each seed holds the promise of more life.

Scene 5: Celestial Lights: The sun, moon, and stars are placed in the firmament. The sun blazes with warmth, the moon glows softly, and the stars twinkle like diamonds on black velvet.

Scene 6: Creatures of Sea and Sky: The waters teem with life, from leviathans to tiny fish. Birds of all shapes and sizes fill the air, their wings carrying them across the sky.

Scene 7: Land Animals and Humankind: Animals roam the land, each unique and wondrous. Finally, God creates humankind, breathing life into them and imbuing them with His image. They are placed in a beautiful garden, a paradise of harmony.

Mood: Reverent, majestic, wondrous, peaceful, and ultimately joyful.

Keywords: Creation, God, light, darkness, heavens, earth, seas, plants, animals, humankind, garden, paradise, breath, whisper, symphony, cosmos.

Additional Notes: Pay attention to the details. The textures, light, and colors should evoke a sense of the divine. The overall impression should be one of awe and wonder at the majesty of creation. Consider using a color palette that evolves throughout the scenes, starting with muted tones and gradually becoming more vibrant as life appears.”

Check out or career fair journey here!

Monterey’s local Middlebury Institute of International Studies had its annual Translation, Interpretation, and Localization Management career fair on February 16^th. It was an exciting day for graduates, current students, and all participants alike.

It’s one of our favorite times of the year!

Many of our colleagues in our office are alumni from MIIS, so it’s always great to be able to go back and meet bright minds and familiar faces.

This year, the event was hosted on the MIIS campus itself, which was wonderful and brought back many memories of attending classes there and being in the same shoes as the students there today.

Speaking to the students there and hearing their enthusiasm and passion really reinvigorates us to make sure that we do our absolute best to ensure that they are coming into a flourishing industry. We truly believe in fostering a community of mutual support where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and succeed.

We made information easy for students

Our staff members were there to set up bright and early at 8:00AM and made sure to make the booth perfect and efficient.

We showcased posters featuring various position descriptions, which allowed students to intuitively understand the roles we are looking for.

Going off the success of last year, we organized information for students to scan with their phones so that they could see the positions we’re hiring for, links for them to sign up, and our advice for future interpreters.

It seems like this was a hit because we received a long line of students eager to speak with us and we received a lot of positive feedback from attendees.

We strive to deepen the connections further as we move forward.

Students felt the energy that our company has, and we felt theirs as well! Every attendee was enthusiastic about seizing the opportunity to speak with industry professionals.

The place was filled with so much potential and possibility, and it was indeed a pleasure to witness such energy and enthusiasm.

The part we’re proud of the most is how much the students said that they appreciated the genuine connections they felt when speaking with our interpreter and representative.

One of the most important talents in our industry is establishing connections with those we work with, so hearing this from not just one, but many students is something we take as a very kind compliment!

Thank you to everyone!

We’re so glad to have had the opportunity to attend this year and thank everyone at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies for making this event such a success.

We always think very highly of the event and see it as a great opportunity to meet new minds in the industry as well as just genuinely connect with people.

Thank you, and we can’t wait until next year’s!

The Printing Press

It is a little-known fact among the Western world that Johannes Gutenberg was not in fact the first to create a printing press. Borrowing from wood-block printing in many Asian cultures, Korean Choe Yun-ui created the first printing press with moveable block characters in the 1200s. However, due to many factors, such as invasion into Korea and the fact that organizing the Chinese characters to print took quite a while, this printing press did not become widespread.

Gutenberg’s printing press, on the other hand, often printed works written in Latin, which is written with far, far fewer letters than there are characters in Chinese. Arranging the type pieces and going through the printing process was markedly easier than in Korea two hundred years earlier, and Gutenberg’s printing press was essential for the increase in literacy in the following century. In our last blog, we mentioned that Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible was a major turning point in the history of translation; without the printing press, his translation would not have reached even half the people that it did.

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone, first discovered in 1799, held a passage that was written three times—twice in two versions of ancient Egyptian, and once in ancient Greek. The passage, written in 196 BC, was key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, despite so much of the Rosetta Stone being broken and incomplete.

The Nuremberg Trials

The infamous Nuremberg Trials were held to take Nazis to court and to try them for war crimes that took place during World War II. Remarkably, the trials only took ten months to complete, despite the need to translate and interpret the proceedings into numerous languages. This was accomplished by implementing the world’s first simultaneous interpretation program, which likely saved years off of the Trials’ time. Simultaneous interpretation is difficult to learn the skills for, but is commonly used for conferences, such as for the United Nations.

The Internet

With the advent of the internet, the world became even more global than ever. While learning languages and speaking or writing to a language partner regardless of distance was possible with phone calls and letters, the internet sped up those processes to be nearly immediate.

With this, however, came increasing demands for translation and interpretation for global businesses. Translators and interpreters now had to learn how to not only navigate linguistic landscapes, but also digital ones.

Machine Translation

Very recently in the history of translation and interpretation has been the rise in machine translation. Essentially, putting one string from language A into a machine, which would produce that string in language B. This method vastly improves the speed at which translators can do their jobs, but as machines can’t understand language in the way that humans do, translators and proofreaders are necessary to ensure that the final product doesn’t sound unnatural.

Now

While looking back at history, we also look towards the future. In the past, human history has had lots of events that have influenced today’s translators and interpreters. Many events even had an impact on the world as a whole, such as the printing press and the internet. In the future, there will only be even more AI inventions and events that will shape the translation and interpretation sphere. However, one thing we have seen clearly is that language has been highly varied and shaped by human thought and action; in that vein, we in the translation and interpretation industry are still far, far away from being replaced by machines or robots.

It’s always about team work. At Monterey Language Services, we are always looking for the right fit for a translation team which always includes a reviewer. Translation can become a long and difficult process if we don’t choose a right team, but then with the right insights and strategies, it becomes easier to control quality and get the desired results.

Lack of the natural flow probably is the most common scenario to be improved. Other than that, many things could be missed in a translation as well, whether it’s due to careless error or a difficulty of tracking everything that the client wants. This is why we need to start with the right foot by choosing a right team to work with for a specific project , and so we can ensure that the translation is accurate, complete, and easy to read.

Then, how do you know what kind of a team would be the best to use? It’s the same for translators and reviewers, you have to choose one that is the best fit for you and the project at hand. This means that even if you are used to using a certain team, you cannot always use them for every project that you have. The selection usually is based on subject specialization. Someone who writes well and is familiar with how subject terminology is used in their daily business. For instance, someone who has experience with the medical field, ideally familiar with whatever is being mentioned in the document. If a translator or a reviewer is unfamiliar with the subject, they may not catch certain errors or they may misunderstand the real meaning or commonly used terminology in that field.

Additionally, you need a team who are familiar with cultural conventions. For example, in Japanese, there are different ways of writing depending on the audience that the document is written for. If someone is not familiar with the different nuances of the language, they might flag certain phrasing or pronoun usage as errors, even though they are correct in the context of the document. This is why depending on the content, it is important to hire translators and reviewers with a certain amount of experience.

One other thing that you might want to be careful of is more in regards to your company itself. The team should be made aware of what is expected of them and what they expect the finished translation to look like and represent. This means everything should be kept handy and shared, including style guides, terminology lists, stop-word lists or any other kind of documents that they want the translation to adhere to. This will help everyone be aware of what they should be looking for when they are translating as well as reviewing.

Insurance Companies

Insurance companies are being pushed out of business, and reacting with panic. In particular, Worker’s Comp providers have been hard hit as it becomes increasingly difficult for companies to rule out or prevent employees’ exposure to Covid-19. Some providers have begun cancelling Workers Comp coverage at just the suggestion that employees could be at risk of exposure.

Media

In a situation like the current one, it’s important to stay up to date and have access to information from trusted news sources. Unfortunately, media outlets are not immune to the effects of the outbreak, and in its wake publishers across the country have been forced to reduce their print schedule, or stop printing altogether. According to the New York Times, local media outlets in particular have been crippled by the outbreak.

Translation and Interpretation

The effects of the outbreak on the T&I industry have been unmistakable to both translators and interpreters themselves, as well as language service companies.  With business across the country screeching to a halt, and more and more areas ordering citizens to shelter in place, last week saw a string of cancellations from clients across the board – depositions, business meetings, tech presentations, medical appointments have been postponed indefinitely, and freelance translators and interpreters face an uncertain future.

We are all being affected by the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus, and for our part, Monterey Language Services will continue to keep an eye on developments across industries as the situation progresses. Stay safe and keep healthy!

The majority of students told us that they shared our values for bridging the language gap between diverse communities and industries. Indeed, the team at Monterey Language Services feels very grateful to have the opportunity to serve people and society by providing translation and interpretation services every day at work.

Students’ professional experience consisted of internships and volunteer work ranging from medical interpretation in hospitals to technical translation on important topics such as oncology, nuclear energy, manufacturing, and IT.

Students had all sorts of questions about internships and the possibilities for work at regional and international levels that Monterey Language Services offers. Many of them had diligently done research and knew about our upcoming project management and interpretation vacancies. They were impressed by the numerous opportunities offered by our company and admired our community involvement. After a very concentrated exchange of ideas, they left our booth feeling very hopeful in the future of the translation industry and our company’s role in it.

Monterey Language Services is committed to bridging the world’s languages by providing quality, professional and efficient translation & interpretation services in over 175 languages. Please feel free to request a quote from us.

Since its creation, Twitter has been a worldwide phenomenon that has connected everyday people with their favorite celebrities, friends, and everyone in between.  Although the service has been provided worldwide, the company has been trying to translate the business tools into 33 languages in order to reach an even broader audience.

These languages include: Afrikaans, Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

At the Twitter Translation Center, translators can sign on using their Twitter account and help translate various blocks of text for the company. The upside for the translator is experience in the field, as well as their name possibly on the “Top Ten Translators” for those who have been translating the most.

The @MRYLanguages Twitter account isn’t in this top ten just yet, but it does connect directly with Director of Translation Mei-Ling Chen where she will gladly answer questions posed about the company, translation services, or any other related topic in the industry.