Themes
Our keynote presentations will reflect the core themes of the FIT World Congress, offering diverse perspectives on the future of language, technology, and the profession.
Artificial Intelligence and Technology
How artificial intelligence is reshaping our profession and society — and why ethical, responsible development and implementation matter more than ever. This theme invites deep reflection—both theoretical and practical—on one of the most important issues to explore.
The Humanities
Celebrating the essential ‘human skills’ and the vital role of creativity, communication, culture, and language in translation, interpreting, and terminology in the age of AI.
Audiovisual Translation and Accessibility
Exploring the impact of digital technologies, creativity, and rapid cultural change on the growing audio visual translation sector.
Literary Translation and Copyright
Navigating the ethical and practical challenges at the intersection of large language models and human creativity — including questions of authenticity, authorship, bias, and copyright.
Indigenous Languages
Emphasizing the revitalization and preservation of Indigenous languages, and recognizing the vital role of culture and traditional knowledge.
Keynote Speakers
Dorothea Baur
Artificial Intelligence Keynote
Dorothea Baur is an expert in ethics, sustainability, and responsibility in business, technology, and finance. Through her consulting company, she advises decision-makers on integrating ethical values into their strategies.She combines academic excellence with practical experience: After studying in Zurich, Leuven, and St. Gallen, she earned her doctorate at the Institute for Business Ethics at the University of St. Gallen. She has taught at leading business schools and published in top-tier journals.As a sought-after speaker, who has also held the stage at TEDx, she will share her relevant expertise on ethics and technology worldwide as it relates to translation, interpreting and terminology. Her sharp analysis and passion make her a driving force for a future where technology is here to serve humans, not the other way around.
In the AI Keynote presentation:
What happens when we let machines speak for us - and about us? In this keynote, Dorotea will reflect on the ethical tensions that arise when language meets automation. We hear a lot about how AI can help us translate faster, write better, or understand more. But what gets lost in the process? As these systems shape how we communicate and interpret the world, we must ask: whose input counts, who benefits – and who decides? This presentation explores how we can engage with such technologies responsibly, without losing sight of human judgment, expertise, and intent.
Ana Guerberof-Arenas
Audiovisual Translation Keynote
Ana Guerberof-Arenas is an associate professor at University of Groningen. From 2020-22, she worked on the EU-funded CREAMT project that looked at the impact of MT on translation creativity and the reader's experience in literary texts. More recently, she has been awarded a ERC Consolidator grant for the INCREC project (2023-2028) that explores the literary and AV translation creative process in its intersection with technology. She has authored articles and chapters on MT post-editing; translator training; ethical considerations in MT; AI and the industry; creativity and reception studies. She has more than 23 years’ experience in the translation industry.
INCREC project: creative process in translation and the user experience
How does the translator’s creative input impact on recipients, readers and viewers, not only cognitively but also emotionally? This presentation examines how creativity is conceptualised in the social sciences and in translation studies, as well as its relationship with technology.
Highlighting results from various studies carried out under the CREAMT project (2020-2022) and the new INCREC research project (2023-2028), which are funded by the ERC Consolidator grant to investigate the creative process of professional literary and audiovisual translators in order to create specific taxonomies on that process, and to explore whether the use of technology, e.g. machine translation, can be advantageous or limit creativity.
Anton Hur
Literary Translation Keynote
A translator and author working in Seoul, Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and raised in British Hong Kong, Ethiopia, and Thailand, but mostly in Korea. Anton is the translator of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny, Baek Sehee’s I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Lee Seong-bok’s Indeterminate Inflorescence, and Kyung-Sook Shin’s Violets. He was double-longlisted and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, a finalist for the National Book Award, and nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has taught at the British Centre for Literary Translation, the Ewha University Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, and the Bread Loaf Translators Conference, proudly sharing his professional experience and tips with young translators. Anton is also an author, of Toward Eternity and and No One Told Me Not To (Across Books).
Anton’s keynote will expand on the "1,000 Anton Hurs Problem, … in which to train an Al to translate as well as Anton Hur, you need 1,000 Anton Hurs to be constantly providing and evaluating the data to feed into the machine-learning model, but there is only one Anton Hur (and he was very expensive for his parents to raise). In my novel, Toward Eternity, I describe an AI that is trained to appreciate poetry; the idea is that it is much harder to create a machine that can appreciate poetry than it is to write it. And without appreciation and taste, you can't have high-quality data evaluation ….”.
Lucio Bagnulo
Language of Human Rights Keynote
Lucio is a passionate, multilingual professional with a strong background in foreign languages and cultures. He holds an MA in Translation from the University of Bologna and an MA in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Westminster in London. He has worked in the language industry in various in-house and freelance roles and currently serves as Deputy Programme Director, Head of Translation and Language Strategy at Amnesty International. His work is grounded in a commitment to the strategic use of language as a driver of change, with a strong interest in how technological and disruptive innovation can help the industry evolve and remain relevant. In 2022, he received the Think Global Award for Language Industry Person of the Year, and in 2024, he was recognised among MultiLingual Media’s 34 global influencers.
In this keynote:
What if the real risk to our profession isn’t AI – but being too timid to redefine it, or worse, losing sight of the human intelligence behind it all? Drawing on experience across the human rights field and the language industry, this keynote explores how language professionals can reconnect with the human, strategically reposition themselves, and help clients navigate risk, ethics, and complexity in a noisy, AI-hyped world.
Daren Tang
World Intellectual Property Organization Keynote
We are delighted that Mr. Daren Tang, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), our host for the XXIII FIT World Congress, will deliver our opening keynote.
Mr. Tang will introduce the role of WIPO as a specialized agency of the United Nations, whose mission is to lead the development of a balanced and effective global intellectual property (IP) system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all. In helping to spread the message of IP around the world, WIPO has a comprehensive translation operation, covering international treaties, conference documentation, IP reports, patent/trademark filings and website localization. They also offer interpretation services, a neural machine translation tool (WIPO Translate) and a terminology database (WIPO Pearl) for accurate IP terminology use.