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Thoughts On Working With AI to fill the job drought gap?
Thread poster: Stephen Young
David GAY
David GAY
Local time: 12:24
English to French
+ ...
Hmm... May 21

Ari Dupree wrote:

Charlie Bavington wrote:

I did an experiment a while back asking AI, in French, to draft a press release in English about a new CEO. I had a few bullet points of basic facts, & asked ChatGPT to make it "typical" in style. In the output, it even invented a quote from my fictional CEO, without being asked, saying how he was looking forward to the challenge, etc. Incredible stuff, really.


It is incredible, of course. But will it still be able to do that ten years from now, when 'typical' style has shifted with cultural changes? Because if it doesn't, then it's just a fancy toy. The AI's ability to stay relevant over time is going to depend on the creators being dedicated to updating the massive data sets, and/or hiring actual translators to generate those data sets. That is going to be an ongoing problem for them, sooner than anyone thinks. (Particularly sooner than CEOs who tend to never look more than five years down the road.)

The biggest limitation of AI is that it requires massive data sets that have to be updated on an ongoing basis (from high-quality, credible sources) if the tool is going to stay relevant over the course of years. A big challenge facing AI (or so I hear) is that the required data sets are so large that it's unwieldy to update them. Culture changes quickly, and they are going to struggle to keep up. (Imagine trying to market anything tech-related using the same language and strategies that were employed even last year, much less five years ago...)

I'm not an AI expert, but I was told by someone who is that no one is actually innovating around this problem right now, because it would require inventing generalized AI. Right now, they're just making the same style of learning algorithms look more impressive by throwing increasingly larger computing power and data sets at them. The larger the data sets get, the more impressive the AI looks in the short term, but the harder it gets to keep them relevant in the long term.

AI is here to stay and it's definitely shaking up the industry, and has been doing so since I started working over ten years ago (back then, it was Google Translate that was going to put us all out of jobs, but I've noticed we're still here...) I just don't believe it's going to spell the end of translation as a profession, any more than the invention of the computer spelled the end of accounting as a profession

[Edited at 2024-05-17 17:50 GMT]

Cultural changes..hmm.. please elaborate. Which cultural changes are under way in the US. Do you mean wokeism? Slang is changing fast but formal English is quite stable, isn't it? So cultural change is fully irrelevant for technical translation.


 
Bernhard Sulzer
Bernhard Sulzer  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:24
English to German
+ ...
AI - ethical it is not May 22

Let me just say, if you work for or with AI, your drought is going to turn into a desert. Not for you in the short run, but for many others who lose their job because of you. And don't ask me about doing this in the first place. There's no ethical reason. Do something else as long as it's still available. My 2 Cents


STEPHEN YOUNG wrote:

I work with Japanese -> English in many different services, including translation, review, subtitles, LQA, native checks, light nMTPE, heavy MTPE, transcription, etc.

However, it seems (for me anyway) that things dried up last month and look a little ok for May (I know GoldenWeek is happening and is a thing, haha).
Because of this, I've felt almost forced to start moving into working with AI in a technical and linguistic sense in order to fill the gaps, which I am 50/50 on since I love translation; it's what I've always done, but also have a personal love for tech so I don't mind working for AI to fill the gaps, but just wish it would all go back to normal.

As a side note to this, I have noticed my once normal, if not below normal, rates are being treated like super insanely high rates.

Have any of you guys been doing something on the side to wait out the drought, or are you not in a drought?

Also, have you're used-to-be standard rates now become classified as overly high rates?


Christopher Schröder
Christel Zipfel
writeaway
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
MagnusRubensson
Tony Keily
 
Denis Fesik
Denis Fesik
Local time: 13:24
English to Russian
+ ...
Tech, tech, tech May 23

I'm not sure if everyone here sees what I see in my forum feed, but my current feed is chock-full of threads about techy stuff (tools, bots & Co.) and no longer features any topics I'd find interesting to explore. I hope "working with AI" doesn't refer to the abominable practice of teaching AI how to translate better by correcting its outputs and feeding them back into the matrices. I'm confident this will not bring about any non-minor qualitative changes, it's just a wrong thing to do for a tr... See more
I'm not sure if everyone here sees what I see in my forum feed, but my current feed is chock-full of threads about techy stuff (tools, bots & Co.) and no longer features any topics I'd find interesting to explore. I hope "working with AI" doesn't refer to the abominable practice of teaching AI how to translate better by correcting its outputs and feeding them back into the matrices. I'm confident this will not bring about any non-minor qualitative changes, it's just a wrong thing to do for a translator (in my book)Collapse


Christel Zipfel
Bernhard Sulzer
Christopher Schröder
Zea_Mays
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
MagnusRubensson
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
+1 May 24

Denis Fesik wrote:
I'm not sure if everyone here sees what I see in my forum feed, but my current feed is chock-full of threads about techy stuff (tools, bots & Co.) and no longer features any topics I'd find interesting to explore.

Me too. There haven't even been any fights recently. Where's Tom?


Zea_Mays
Matthias Brombach
 
Denis Fesik
Denis Fesik
Local time: 13:24
English to Russian
+ ...
I think Tom is being Tom by not doing what's expected of him May 27

Christopher Schröder wrote:

Denis Fesik wrote:
I'm not sure if everyone here sees what I see in my forum feed, but my current feed is chock-full of threads about techy stuff (tools, bots & Co.) and no longer features any topics I'd find interesting to explore.

Me too. There haven't even been any fights recently. Where's Tom?


Other than that, I do wish him the very best of all things


Christopher Schröder
Matthias Brombach
 
Denis Danchenko
Denis Danchenko  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 13:24
English to Russian
+ ...
Fights with AI in full swing Jun 4

Last week, I lost a fast moving battle to a "ChatGPT + some_native_double-checker" task force.
The ground is (mind you) a client-facing web UI.


[Edited at 2024-06-04 07:46 GMT]


 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 13:24
Member
English to Turkish
Dark forces of AI Jun 4

Denis Danchenko wrote:

Last week, I lost a fast moving battle to a "ChatGPT + some_native_double-checker" task force.
The ground is (mind you) a client-facing web UI.


[Edited at 2024-06-04 07:46 GMT]

I suppose in your case it's better to win the war than to lose the battle.


Christopher Schröder
Matthias Brombach
 
MagnusRubensson
MagnusRubensson  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:24
English to Swedish
I'd rather use AI for something ELSE – to create release graphics for my music/songs Jun 4

Definitely seeing a drought since about January 2024.

A couple of my PM's indicated it is indeed because of AI/MT now being on a level where many clients feel that a human translator is no longer needed.

I'm taking a hardline stance and if that means the end of my 28-year full time job, so be it. I'm not going to make any more rods for my own back by taking yet another financial hit. We've taken more than enough of those already.

If my work is no longer wor
... See more
Definitely seeing a drought since about January 2024.

A couple of my PM's indicated it is indeed because of AI/MT now being on a level where many clients feel that a human translator is no longer needed.

I'm taking a hardline stance and if that means the end of my 28-year full time job, so be it. I'm not going to make any more rods for my own back by taking yet another financial hit. We've taken more than enough of those already.

If my work is no longer worth anything, then the work should no longer be carried out.
That includes final editing - I'm not going to do it for absolute peanuts. PEMT pay rates are insulting.

-----------------------------------------------------------
In one old 2019 forum thread called "Will you still be a translator in ten years' time" I wrote "I will be a lounge bar pianist".
Then in 2020 covid hit and the entire hotels/pubs sector was forced to shut, so thanks for that, political vampires... being "small fish" I must adapt again.

One month ago I signed up with a music distribution service. So far I have released seven original instrumental songs onto Spotify and other streaming services in three different "easy listening" styles (bossa nova/latin + smoky piano jazz + electronica).

Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average.
$0.003 per play is already better than the zero pay per word for "exact matches" in the translation industry.

I decided to use AI for something else, so I used AI to create release graphics for my own original music. AI works pretty well for that.

The compositions/songs are not AI-generated at all. I have played piano for well over half a century now, so I don't need AI for that. Even if I don't make any money from it it's fun to have something published. Very soon I'm not going to make any money from translation either, so I'd rather do something else instead of damaging my retinas even more.

Of course, AI in music will have the same effect as AI in translation - eventually, everything will end up sounding exactly the same. I'm sort of banking on the human ear still being able to subconsciously hear a difference.

-----------------------------------------------------------
(I'm not going to plug the music here on the forum - it's probably against the rules - but if anyone wants to hear it... feel free to send a message.)

[Edited at 2024-06-04 09:42 GMT]
Collapse


Baran Keki
Tony Keily
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Baran Keki
Baran Keki  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 13:24
Member
English to Turkish
I think it'll be worse for music Jun 4

MagnusRubensson wrote:
Of course, AI in music will have the same effect as AI in translation - eventually, everything will end up sounding exactly the same. I'm sort of banking on the human ear still being able to subconsciously hear a difference.

I know this is not at all your cuppa, but I was positively dumbstruck when I heard this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOMcsXFuQvs
It's effing unbelievable... I don't have the most sophisticated ear in the world and I was kind of drunk when I heard this, but what the hell... it's even better than the original version.


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Do it! Jun 4

MagnusRubensson wrote:

(I'm not going to plug the music here on the forum - it's probably against the rules - but if anyone wants to hear it... feel free to send a message.)


I think you should. You might get another whole cent from Spotify.

PS Baran, that was horrible, even worse than me


Baran Keki
 
MagnusRubensson
MagnusRubensson  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:24
English to Swedish
OK, I'll post one music piece (melodic electronica - "Sirene" by "O-90") Jun 4

Christopher Schröder wrote:

MagnusRubensson wrote:

(I'm not going to plug the music here on the forum - it's probably against the rules - but if anyone wants to hear it... feel free to send a message.)


I think you should. You might get another whole cent from Spotify.
PS Baran, that was horrible, even worse than me



-------------------------
OK, if you think it's all right. I'll post one:
My latest musical offering is from the 'virtual electronica band' O-90 and the instrumental song Sirene:
https://ditto.fm/sirene-o-90

If you press Play on Spotify/Amazon/Deezer etc. below the preview image, the full song should play.

YouTube has its own link, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmqV4WC9A0A

The release graphic with the ship & siren/mermaid is done using AI.
With masts like those, no wonder it is about to hit the rocks.
The AI image glitches were almost comical so I left them in.

The music itself is not AI at all – it is composed and played (manually) on the black & white piano keys on my Roland synthesizers. This is a multitrack/overdub recording with eight (8) stereo tracks, all recorded one by one by myself onto a Tascam DP32SD multitrack recorder. I also do voiceovers with the Tascam.

[Edited at 2024-06-04 11:41 GMT]

[Edited at 2024-06-04 11:42 GMT]


Christopher Schröder
Zea_Mays
 
Charlie Bavington
Charlie Bavington  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:24
French to English
Some ideas Jun 4

Ari Dupree wrote:

Charlie Bavington wrote:

I did an experiment a while back asking AI, in French, to draft a press release in English about a new CEO. I had a few bullet points of basic facts, & asked ChatGPT to make it "typical" in style. In the output, it even invented a quote from my fictional CEO, without being asked, saying how he was looking forward to the challenge, etc. Incredible stuff, really.


It is incredible, of course. But will it still be able to do that ten years from now, when 'typical' style has shifted with cultural changes?

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say "yes". Style doesn't change that much, & I'm sure it can handle the rise of, say, inclusive writing.

Ari Dupree wrote:
The biggest limitation of AI is that it requires massive data sets ... Culture changes quickly, and they are going to struggle to keep up.

What's all this "culture" stuff you keep spewing? AI will fail because of the "culture war", is that the idea? It's all going to blow up because AI can't cope with whether to use gender-neutral "they" or not?

Ari Dupree wrote:
I'm not an AI expert, but I was told by someone who is that no one is actually innovating around this problem right now, because it would require inventing generalized AI.

Find a new expert. One who acknowledges that the nature of AI itself won't be the same in 10 years as it is now.

Ari Dupree wrote:
AI is here to stay ...I just don't believe it's going to spell the end of translation as a profession, any more than the invention of the computer spelled the end of accounting as a profession.

It will nonetheless change the nature of the profession. As it has with accounting. For those who liked it the old way, like those people who enjoyed being able to run down a huge column of figures in a physical ledger totalling the sum as they went, the change might not be welcome.

Ari Dupree wrote:
There's a lot of talk going on about who is responsible when an AI makes a mistake that results in damage that a human could be sued for.

This is an interesting field, self driving cars being the obvious example: what does a car do when faced with a "trolley problem" type of situation? There are obviously many other scenarios.
I suspect though that the answer is lawyers, not the disappearance of AI.


 
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Thoughts On Working With AI to fill the job drought gap?







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