@inproceedings{alfaify-2025-replacing,
    title = "Replacing the Irreplaceable: A Case Study on the Limitations of {MT} and {AI} Translation during the 2023 {G}aza-{I}srael Conflict",
    author = "Alfaify, Abeer",
    editor = {Bouillon, Pierrette  and
      Gerlach, Johanna  and
      Girletti, Sabrina  and
      Volkart, Lise  and
      Rubino, Raphael  and
      Sennrich, Rico  and
      L{\"a}ubli, Samuel  and
      Volk, Martin  and
      Espl{\`a}-Gomis, Miquel  and
      Vandeghinste, Vincent  and
      Moniz, Helena  and
      Szoc, Sara},
    booktitle = "Proceedings of Machine Translation Summit XX: Volume 2",
    month = jun,
    year = "2025",
    address = "Geneva, Switzerland",
    publisher = "European Association for Machine Translation",
    url = "https://preview.aclanthology.org/mtsummit-25-ingestion/2025.mtsummit-2.2/",
    pages = "8--17",
    ISBN = "978-2-9701897-1-8",
    abstract = "Despite the remarkable development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine translation (MT) in recent years, which has made them more efficient, less costly and easier to navigate, they still struggle to match the abilities of human translators. The limitations shown by AI and MT, which have been detected in various domain-specific texts and contexts, sustain the debate over whether they can fully replace human translators. Nevertheless, very few studies have examined the translation abilities of AI and MT during conflicts and high-stakes contexts. This paper explores some of these limitations that were detected during the 2023 Gaza-Israel conflict, illustrating significant examples from X (formerly Twitter). These examples showcase limitations in 1) translating cultural references, 2) avoiding critical errors in high-stakes context, 3) preventing bias and intervention, and 4) translating cursive handwriting. This is done through a combination of descriptive, comparative and experimental analysis methods, highlighting risks and implications associated with using these tools in such sensitive contexts, while contributing to the broader discussion on whether advances in AI and MT will diminish the need for human translators."
}