Interesting question: One I've been thinking about for over 20 years after reading Ray Kurzweil's "Age of Spiritual Machines" (which included a timeline of life-changing tech leading to the Singularity... including translation/interpretation for the Deaf).

According to that book, we're on the cusp of replacing (some) human interpreters by 2030.

By 2030, we'll be seeing AI TV-interpreters for "news", concerts, YouTube, etc.(honestly, I'm a little surprised we're not seeing those en masse, now) - We'll have interpreting apps for mobile.

However, when it comes to interpreters for the Deaf in the field (live, 2-way interpreting), there are often more logistics, nuance, and specified needs involved, especially if working in K-12 education; Due to such externalities, at least some sign language interpreting jobs will remain for the foreseeable future as software cannot satisfy specific client needs.

Examples:

>K-12 Deaf students who are also going blind (yes, this happens- and requires Tactile interpreting- software cannot do this)

>"Deaf+"clients (I've heard this in reference to Deaf students who have other considerations (ie autism, blindness, CP, etc. that severely impact their ability to comprehend &/or produce language)- these students/clients require more than "straight" interpreting (AI distinguishes no outside client needs; thus, AI is inadequate for such situations)

>Languageless Deaf - The world over, there are many languageless Deaf people who were born into hearing families, and were never given the gift of language- signed or otherwise. These people grow up with gestures, possibly Home-specific gestures, or nothing at all. I myself, have interpreted for 1/2 a dozen languageless Deaf people, and this requires a lot of back-and-forth b/w the interpeter and Deaf person (software, currently, cannot perform such duties)

Loved your question🤙