Katarina,

You speak about another thing. If you go to live another you will learn the language of course. But for 99% of the population and the people here on italki don't learn languages to live in those countries whose language they learn. They learn languages, to be able to read an interesting article, or read a manga, play a game, read thing on internet. For there people GT will translate everything more accurate then they will every translate for themselves.  And skype ha a feature now which is nor perfect now, yes, but it will be. And it trnaslates immeaditaley what the other people say on the other side of the line. It will be perfect for people who must attenc a phone conference with different nationalities. If you want to learn language for living there, or for pleasure or hobby, then of course you learn it. For the other 95% who want to read manga, article, japanese game. GT will solve the issue. Like subtitles in a film. You don't need to learn japanese to watch anime which has english subtitles. You watch it in japanese with subtitles. Many people do this!!! They watch films which language they don't understand, but they can enjoy with subtitle. These people will enjoy articles, and such with GT!!! And these people can make phone conference with GT, without spend years for a language wich tehy want to make just a deal.

Irena,

There is no flying car, we don't need it. It's a sci-fi novel's idea. You can drive a tesla car instead, which drive itself. And that smartphone in your pocket? 10 years ago you had a large computer, to do simple things, now you had a powerhouse in your pocket. Yes on that just a "smart phone" you can use italki in the subway, or anywhere. On that little thing you can lookup everything, restaurants, buses, you name it. That thing had an AI on it, and learn from you and others very fast. Human needs shape what technology does. Humans don't need a flying car so nobody bothers to develop it, because it won't sell, nobody wants it right now. What they want a newer iphone, a google translate which can translate everything so they don't need to learn the language of the person they want to make a business deal. The world is connected now on internet, you can order everything from anywhere, language barriers will break down and borders will disappear. There's also a translator on skype now, which can translate right away what you say, and what the other person say. It will be perfect in a year. Language is a hobby now, just like writing kanjis with brush. Ai will replace most person's job in 10 years, there will be some riots, like in the industrial revolution when they smashed the machines, but the machine won that revolution too. It can't be stopped, population will decrease, but then humans will have mor time for each other and AI will teach us, and help.

Irena,

I work as a programmer, I'm reading about these stuffs on daily level. It's an artificial intelligence, it doesn't need to use a human language it's too simple for and AI. An AI is an intelligence that develops itself, it learns on its own, and what is good for it. It can beat humans in thinking and speed from miles. "Robots" will teach us in the near future and not the other way around. AI can trade with each others and make compromises too nowadays. Here is one of the reference.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/googles-ai-translation-tool-seems-to-have-invented-its-own-language/

Irena,

Thanks for the comment. Yes it's not perfect for all languages, but it's a matter of time, for the AI to learn all, less than a year. It's not true that all language goes through english. For google translate they invented a new language, that wasn't existed, and this the language all converts to. They made a language because not everythin can be translated to english, so they made artificially and the AI uses it. It translates everything to this artifical language and then to the aimed language. 2 years ago, this translator couldn't translate a simple sentence perfectly. Now it's and AI which learns, and can perfectly translate a japanese scientific article. Guess what will happen in 2 years. And skype already has a tool which can translate spoken language too. I fear italki lessons will end, when skype finishies his tool too. Language learning became a hobby for everyone, because they speak with anyone using the tools. It's not the far future, it's the near, it's only 1-2 years. I'm sad, but as a programmer I understand, that how these thing work, and it can't be stopped.