The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the LORD said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language…. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” – Genesis 11:1-9
The Bible tells a story of a time when people in a city called Babel (or Babylon) all spoke the same language. However when the people of Babel attempted to build a structure that “reaches to the heavens,” the Lord punished them for their pride and arrogance by scattering them around the world, as well as “confused” them by giving different tribes different tongues.
And now, millennia later, we are on the cusp of a new Babylonian Age. As advancements in machine translation race on, accelerated by advancements in AI, we are approaching an era when you and I can have a real-time conversation with anyone else in the world.
The Universal Translator
In Star Trek lore, the universal translator was created around the middle of the 22nd century. But recent advancements in AI involving large language models like ChatGPT, have created the sense that machine translation technology is advancing at a faster pace than expected.
In May of 2023, Google announced a real-time language dubbing service they actually dubbed “the Universal Translator,” which will translate speech real-time, while adjusting lip movements accordingly.
Earlier this year, Meta introduced Seamless M4T, what Zuckerberg and co say is the “first all-in-one multilingual multimodal AI translation and transcription model.” As you can see in the video below, Meta claims M4T, an open-source model, can support nearly 100 different languages in text form, and 35 languages for speech translation.
When exactly will we experience translation technologies that melt away in the background and provide truly seamless services? When will systems create the illusion we are all speaking the same language? Experts are coy and won’t put years on it. But it could very well be in our lifetime.
And when that happens, I believe human civilization will undergo a sea change of communication, collaboration and creativity.
Communication, Collaboration and Creativity
Music is the universal language of mankind, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote.
Playing for Change, an organization devoted to breaking down barriers through music, has been recording musicians around the world, blending individual performances into the recording of a single song. One of their earliest collaborations was the song, Stand by Me, featuring 26 artists playing instruments or singing in California, New Mexico and Louisiana, France, Spain and Italy, South Africa, The Congo, Brazil and Russia.
During the COVID pandemic, this kind of collaboration exploded across the internet, with musicians communicating across cultures and species to contribute many iterations of the Num Num Cat song. Taking the vocalization of a cat drinking milk from a spoon, musicians have riffed on this beat and melody to pleasing results.
When people from different cultures speak the same language, whether it is chord progressions or Spanish, and have a reason to think, play or work together, the potential for creativity and problem solving grow significantly.
Imagine a world where kids from Le Paz, Lahore and L.A. go ga ga over the latest release from their favorite K-pop boy band, while conversing in Spanish, Punjabi and English. They will begin to pick up on differences in their motivations, tastes and styles. If they are musicians, they may start mimicking their K-Pop stars on Youtube videos while unwittingly introducing new twists on familiar K-Pop licks, beats and dance moves.
Imagine a video conference of sales agents in a global insurance firm joining from Beijing, Banjul and Bretenoux trading closing techniques in Mandarin, Wolof and French. They get affirmation for proven sales techniques that work around the world, while gaining insight into changing demographic trends and selling points that may just be emerging in their own markets.
Imagine a trio of researchers from Minsk, Malacca and Muscat who meet at a conference in Madrid, exploring the timing and impact of rising sea levels, while debating in Russian, Kristang, and Arabic about accountabilities and best ways to influence those in power.
The potential for more creative and impactful solutions to significant problems is greater with higher levels of diversity of thought. Systems that bring us closer to seamless and real-time multilingual translation will result in high-definition multi-cultural diversity.
The Floating Tribe
The superb writer, Pico Iyer, has a TedTalk, called “Where is Home?” in which he talks about a particular type of people he meets in his travels: those who do not reside in the countries they were born and raised. Today, there are about 281 million international migrants, which is about 3.6% of the global population and would be the fourth largest nation in the world after China, India and the US.
This group is not a sovereign nation, but members share some similarities. They prefer the future to the past, different to the same. They appreciate surprises and harmony. Iyer calls them the “floating tribe.” In the video, Iyer describes a young woman living in Paris, born of Korean and German parents, who meets a young man from Scotland, whose parents are Thai and Canadian, and “realises that she probably has much more in common with him than with anybody entirely of Korea or entirely of Germany.” She marries the young man and moves to New York City.
And the little girl who arises out of their union will of course be not Korean or German or French or Thai or Scotch or Canadian or even American, but a wonderful and constantly evolving mix of all those places. And potentially, everything about the way that young woman dreams about the world, writes about the world, thinks about the world, could be something different, because it comes out of this almost unprecedented blend of cultures.
Iyer’s Floating Tribe is not currently a product of people who leverage the latest in translation technology – they are making relationships the old fashioned way: speaking in common tongues, learning the language of others. The members of the Floating Tribe come together because of their shared values: an appreciation for unique and hybrid identities, the insight and ideas that comes from a clash and collaboration of cultures, and a desire to value global citizenship over national allegiance.
The Global Super Empowered Tribe
It’s 2020, and the presidential election is fraught with tension as incumbent Donald Trump looks to repeat as the most powerful person in the United States. Trump thrives at his rallies, where he loves to rouse the emotions of big crowds.
But when K-Pop fan groups in the United States come together to book seats at Trump rallies (without any intention of attending), resulting in sparsely attended events, the mainstream world wakes up to the fact that there are hyper-connected interest groups with power we never knew they had.
As it turns out, K-Pop fan groups are united globally in their love for popular bands from Korea, but in the United States, they are also made up of minority groups including African Americans, Latinos and LGBTQ. And thanks to their affinities and connectivity, they became a disruptive creative force.
Now, if language barriers fade away through seamless multilingual translation systems, there will be an explosion of new floating tribes who see the world from a global perspective, who seek to push back against the increasing power of the corporation or the increasing need of the nation state to maintain the status quo, particularly if it means maintaining their own status.
Ideas that were once considered fringe, their dissemination limited by geography and language, will find new audiences wherever one has an internet connection, and access to multi-lingual translation systems.
We will see global movements on an unprecedented scale based on various spheres: for example, the advocacy of gender equality, the popularity of spiritual communities, the devotion to wellness communities, the reaction to human rights abuses, and perhaps most powerfully, the fight over climate change.
These tribes, which I call Global Super-Empowered Tribes, or GSET, may potentially wield considerable influence, fostering global movements to drive change in their respective spheres. One global movement in particular may get turbo charged when the universal translator comes available.
An Example: Youth-Powered Climate GSET
Organizations like Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future, are aided by a rising youth movement raising their voices, angered by the betrayal of generations before them for leaving a planet in worse shape, they say, than they received it.
On August 14, 2023, 16 teenage plaintiffs won a lawsuit claiming that Montana, a state in the United Stages, failed to protect them from the impacts of climate change, in violation of their rights guaranteed in the Montana Constitution. Specifically, the state government was previously “not permitted to consider the impact of climate change when approving energy projects,” but due to the outcome of this case, that process could change.
This first case will certainly lead to many other youth-led court cases, as four others are already on the docket in the United States. People like Greta Thunberg, who was born in 2003 and started her public life as a climate change activist at the age of 15, as at the forefront of a climate change GSET.
Inspired by the student activism in the wake of the mass shooting and murder of 17 students at a high school in Parkland, Florida, she thought that similar tactics could be applied to fighting the enablers of climate change. Her supporters around the world love her because she is not afraid to speak truth to power.
- This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. – at UN Summit in New York
- Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago. – COP24, Poland, 4 December 2018
- I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is. – World Economic Forum, Davos, 24 January 2019
- You must unite behind the science. You must take action. You must do the impossible. Because giving up can never ever be an option. – US Congress, Washington DC, 17 September 2019
- We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable. – UN Youth Climate Summit, New York City, 21 September 2019
This growing network of climate change activists will continue to grow in numbers and influence. This particular GSET already has the following: significant influence, organizational structure, skills with technology, as well as appeal that cuts across national and ethnic borders, thanks to its focus on a global goal to save the planet.
But when seamless universal translation services come on the scene, organizations like Extinction Rebellion, and Fridays for Future, which was started by Thunberg, have the opportunity to grow leaps and bounds with the elimination of the most basic barriers to cross-cultural unity – language.
Aligned in global purpose and catalyzed by the increasing ease of cross-border communication, GSETs will flourish, become a powerful counterbalance to nation states and global corporations, and help us reinvent the world as a New Babylon.
ARTICLE FAQS
1. What is meant by a “New Babylon” in the context of AI translation?
The phrase refers to a future where seamless, real-time translation eliminates language barriers, enabling people worldwide to communicate as if they spoke the same language. Unlike the biblical Tower of Babel story where languages divided people, this “New Babylon” could unite them.
2. How close are we to having a true universal translator?
Major tech firms are already rolling out advanced translation tools. Google has demonstrated real-time dubbing that syncs lip movements, while Meta’s Seamless M4T supports nearly 100 languages in text and 35 in speech. While not perfect yet, experts believe near-seamless translation could arrive within our lifetimes.
3. How could universal translation impact communication and creativity?
By removing language barriers, people will collaborate more easily across cultures in fields like education, research, business, and music. This could accelerate creativity, problem solving, and cultural exchange, producing hybrid forms of art, knowledge, and innovation that wouldn’t otherwise emerge.
4. What are Global Super-Empowered Tribes (GSETs)?
GSETs are globally connected communities formed around shared causes, values, or interests, rather than geography or nationality. With translation tools, these groups will be able to expand and coordinate more effectively across borders, giving them unprecedented influence.
5. How might universal translation affect activism and social movements?
Movements like climate activism already attract diverse global participation. Seamless translation would amplify their reach, allowing groups such as Extinction Rebellion or Fridays for Future to unify more voices, mobilize faster, and pressure governments and corporations with greater impact.
6. Could universal translation reshape global power dynamics?
Yes. By enabling new transnational identities and collaborations, universal translation could shift power away from traditional nation states and corporations toward global citizen-led movements. These emerging “super-empowered tribes” may become a counterbalance in shaping the future world order.
