Legal Battles, Bankruptcies, Acquisitions, and AI Interpretation Guidelines

Florian and Esther discuss the latest news from the language industry this week, including the legal battle in the UK over public sector interpreting and the classification of interpreters as freelancers or employees, which could significantly impact the business models of language service providers (LSPs).

The duo explores Google Translate’s recent expansion, which is expected to support over 200 languages, adding 110 new languages using the Palm 2’s large language model.

Florian tells the story of the insolvency of Landexx, a German language services company, which is part of a series of recent bankruptcies in the language services industry in Europe.

Meanwhile, Keywords Studios, a leading player in the game localization market, is set to be acquired by investment firm EQT, valuing LSP at around $2.2 billion.

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Esther discusses mergers and acquisitions, including Translate.One’s acquisition of Enable2 in the UK, Valorem Group’s purchase of Ireland-based TRANSLIT, and difuze’s acquisition of Blackstone Sight and Sound’s accessibility business in Canada. Additionally, Esther discusses Dubme.io, a Spanish startup specializing in AI-based dubbing, raising a pre-seed round.

The podcast ends with a discussion of the Interpreting SAFE AI Task Force, which published guidelines for the ethical use of AI in interpreting, emphasizing the importance of maintaining quality, accountability, and transparency in the industry.