Spot on as usual Will. Question: if Air Canada and Rousseau knew of his inability to speak French, what is they used one of the AI tools to convert his English comments into French? I’ve seen some very impressive examples. Not sure if any can translate into Quebec French, which has its own accent and some vocabulary that differ from standard French. Would that have helped? Or made a bad situation even worse in your opinion?
I think it would have made the situation worse. It would have drawn more attention to his limitations and introduced a layer of “appropriate uses of AI” discourse. (Why not use a professional interpreter if you’re going to do that?) The fundamental problem would remain that Rousseau himself didn’t deliver on a commitment to improve his French. When the crisis hit, there was no good move for him, other than possibly owning it right up front and apologizing at the beginning of his remarks. But it was always going to be politically useful for people to attack him. Hence the unrelieved tension.
Spot on as usual Will. Question: if Air Canada and Rousseau knew of his inability to speak French, what is they used one of the AI tools to convert his English comments into French? I’ve seen some very impressive examples. Not sure if any can translate into Quebec French, which has its own accent and some vocabulary that differ from standard French. Would that have helped? Or made a bad situation even worse in your opinion?
I think it would have made the situation worse. It would have drawn more attention to his limitations and introduced a layer of “appropriate uses of AI” discourse. (Why not use a professional interpreter if you’re going to do that?) The fundamental problem would remain that Rousseau himself didn’t deliver on a commitment to improve his French. When the crisis hit, there was no good move for him, other than possibly owning it right up front and apologizing at the beginning of his remarks. But it was always going to be politically useful for people to attack him. Hence the unrelieved tension.
Related reflection: https://asiaindependent.substack.com/p/exit-interview-canada-says-it-needs?r=28hspa&utm_medium=ios
That is super interesting! (And personal!) Thanks for sharing it!