Corporate Social Responsibility

Ethics, sustainability, dignity in the workplace and governance

SMG is committed to tackling the momentous challenges posed by the changing professional, social and economic landscape in the world of communication and language services driven by artificial intelligence and recent geopolitical developments. Our response to this rapidly evolving scenario has been to study, understand and learn to manage social dynamics and new technologies, adopting a critical and considered approach.

As well as investigating the effects of disparities between rich and poor countries on the intellectual services industry, SMG has devoted particular attention to the following issues arising from the uncontrolled use of artificial intelligence in multilingual communication; in our view, these are not caused by the technology itself, but rather by its misuse by humans, who overestimate its capabilities and employ it indiscriminately:

• poor quality of content and translations produced by AI;
• risks to information and data security;
• decline in users’ capacity for critical thinking and concentration;
• drop in income for numerous professional categories;
• a growing lack of interest among young people in many professions due to fears about the effects of AI, with the consequent risk of a future shortage of the skills required for quality control and human-machine interaction – for example, far fewer young people study translation, so there will be a lack of expertise for reviewing and correcting AI translations).

We have applied our analysis and many years’ experience in the field to redesign and clearly reestablish the role of humans in communication and translation activities, defining the methods and limits for interaction with technology. This has resulted in an efficient and properly documented working model, which recognises the central role of human expertise and is far removed from overly enthusiastic or pessimistic perspectives, which risk undermining the balance of the market and the social fabric.

Consequently, SMG is committed primarily to the following activities:

• bringing together people who develop and promote culture and knowledge and who use technology as a support, not as a substitute, subjecting technology-generated content to rigorous reviews;
• sharing with the community SMG’s best practices and research findings, based on over 20 years’ experience organising conferences and opportunities for exchange aimed primarily at young people and academia;
• supporting the drafting of guidelines and codes of ethics that encourage communication service providers to adopt sustainable policies and practices, with governance that is transparent and verifiable for clients and stakeholders;
• providing language and communication services and solutions that are the result of decent work and that respect the fundamental principles of sustainability, such as environmental responsibility, equal opportunities, support for the younger generation, cultural promotion, legal compliance and an emphasis on individual accountability;
• supporting the local community: all SMG Languages offices operate with respect for local communities and actively contribute to their development, particularly by providing decent working conditions. This operational approach also generates tangible benefits for clients, as the quality of our services depends in part on the wellbeing of the staff who deliver them.