Argentine President Javier Milei’s recent speech, to the World Economic Forum in Davos, has caused a stir for several reasons. First, it was someone saying something interesting at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Also, it was someone being positive about capitalism and enterprise in a lucid, educated way. Agree with Milei or not, he is clearly not a dunce, even if he is possibly overfond of chainsaws.

Now there is another cause to be animated by the speech, a reason that dwarfs all the others. Indeed, the ramifications are so immense they can be difficult to extrapolate: this could, literally, be a civilisational game-changer.

I’m talking about the translation of Milei’s speech, by a brand of AI software called Heygen – software which has been developing quietly for a few years, but has suddenly exploded in capability. You can watch this incredible translation here:

Milei’s 2024 Davos talk, directly translated to English by AI (by heygen), in his own accent. Better than the dubbed version imo. pic.twitter.com/8OAGELuqxl

— Aaron Slodov (@aphysicist) January 18, 2024

Now you’ve seen it, you see why it is so remarkable and why it is going globally viral (with tens of millions of worldwide views). Milei is talking in Spanish, but the software has carefully and accurately translated it into English, and also made his lips move so that it seems like he is talking English.

At the same time it has kept his mannerisms and facial expressions, and even adopted his accent and tone of voice (though some claim he sounds a bit like a Bangladeshi guy after a decade in Swansea). It is a superb deepfake of reality which actually offers an improved reality: i.e. a world where Argentinian president Javier Milei can speak fluent English.

The ability to take moving images of people and use their real words and make it seem like they are speaking those words in any language you like (the software has been adapted for Korean, Russian, Mandarin, and so on) is so momentous it is almost impossible to summarise the implications in one article. But I’ll have a bash.

For a start, it suggests we are near the end of the line for anyone involved in live translation, dubbing of foreign movies, interpreters at conferences, and so on. That’s not a lot of people, but it won’t stop there. Heygen (and its siblings and successors) probably also means the end of virtually all foreign language teaching, because the learning of foreign languages will become pointless. For sure, some people will still acquire Portuguese or Punjabi, but it will be seen as a niche or luxurious pursuit: like learning the viola, or taking lessons in dressage. Foreign languages will be ‘nice to have’, and good for the soul, but learning them will be an irrelevant waste of time for most of humankind.

To work out why, you just have to marry this software with tech we already possess. Heygen-type video-lipsync software will soon be incorporated into smartphones. That means you’ll be able to walk around Bucharest and when people talk to you in Romanian you will point your phone at them and your phone-screen will show them talking to you in perfect, natural English, along with all their real-life, real-time gestures and personality. The Romanian, in turn, will be able to turn her phone on you, and see you apparently and convincingly talking in her language.

It is almost impossible to summarise the implications in one article. But I’ll have a bash.

Presumably, this software will soon be linked to glasses, or lenses, which will execute this task automatically, and all you will have to do, in Pisa, Lima, or Osaka, is wear these glasses and you will understand what everyone is saying, and read all their facial language, almost like you were born there. We could call these glasses Babel Glasses, in honour of Douglas Adams’ instant universal translator, the Babel Fish, because there is a striking similarity. The main difference is that Babel Glasses will be much better than the Babel Fish, because of the lip syncing.

The consequences roll on. With this technology, politicians – and actors, comics, thinkers, Ted Talkers, Spectator TV pundits – will suddenly have access to a global audience, in a revolutionary way. Take a future directly elected EU president, for instance. They might only be able to speak German, but with this AI tech they can make speeches and give interviews in Athens and it will look like they are speaking easy, natural Greek; ditto in Lisbon, Dublin, Stockholm, Sofia. In a trice that halfway solves the EU’s notorious ‘demos problem’ – that there is not one EU people speaking one EU language offering one public opinion. Now there will be one European people still speaking their own languages, but they will all be able to comprehend each other instantaneously.

What this will do for languages as a whole, indeed for all human culture, is harder to predict. Perhaps it will, sadly, whisk the world into a lifeless beige gloop of endless similarity. Alternatively, the sudden ability of everyone on the planet to interact naturally and normally in their own languages, and be entirely understood by anyone else, might lead to an explosion of creativity, as people are liberated from linguistic prisons, and exposed to every kind of foreign idea.

What we can definitely say is that it is one in the eye for the vengeful God of the Old Testament. After all, it was Him that divided us up by languages, and put barriers between us, as the Book of Genesis makes clear:

And the LORD said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.‘

Now we can say, ‘Sorry, Jehovah – we’ve moved on.’ And He will understand us, however and wherever we say it, because of some clever software, and the uncanny genius of AI.