The benefits extend even beyond subscribers. Translation renders not only new reporting more valuable, but archival content as well, according to Jeff Kaloski, managing director and partner at L.E.K. Consulting.
A similar phenomenon is playing out right now in the entertainment industry, Kaloski said. Backlogs of content going back decades—more than a century in some cases—can now be localized at next to no cost, unlocking intellectual property that was once cost-prohibitive to translate.
As AI firms work to secure licensing deals with trusted information providers, The Times’ ability to translate its archive into other languages could make its data exponentially more valuable. Rather than limit its utility to English-based queries, Times content could be used to inform answers in any language, according to Danczak.
Of course, this all remains hypothetical at the moment.
The Times, alongside Le Monde and others, has moved slowly in its embrace of AI-enabled translation in order to ensure that its quality of reporting does not suffer. Automated translation tools still produce errors particularly in less-popular languagesand competitors that have moved more quickly, like Bloomberghave hit snags trying to inject AI-generated summaries and localization into their coverage.
For The Times to be “the essential subscription” for the non-English speaking world, it will first need to be trusted in other languages.
