AI Efficiency vs. Human Proficiency in Interpreting Political Discourse Between English and Arabic: A Contrastive–Comparative Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1609.02Keywords:
artificial intelligence (AI), human interpreting, political discourse, English–ArabicAbstract
This study compares the efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI)-based interpreting systems with the proficiency of human interpreters in translating political discourse between English and Arabic. The research focuses on selected 2025 speeches by Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Donald Trump to evaluate how effectively AI tools and human interpreters handle the rhetorical, pragmatic, and cultural dimensions of contemporary political communication. A comparative–contrastive qualitative discourse analysis was conducted to analyze these original speeches alongside their AI-generated and human-interpreted versions. The analysis draws on established cognitive and pragmatic frameworks to assess interpretive accuracy, pragmatic relevance, rhetorical fidelity, and processing demands. The findings indicate that while AI systems demonstrate high efficiency in lexical consistency, fluency, and formulaic language, they remain limited in capturing ideological nuance, cultural connotation, and pragmatic implicature. Human interpreters, despite cognitive constraints inherent in real-time interpreting, outperform AI in conveying contextualized meaning, emotional tone, and rhetorical intent. The study concludes that a hybrid, augmented-intelligence model that integrates AI efficiency with human interpretive judgment is the most effective approach to interpreting political discourse, thus reinforcing the indispensable role of human interpreters in high-stakes political communication.
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