Artificial Intelligence on the way of Translators: Like it or Lump it!
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
From the days of manual writing to typewriters and papers and finally, to the computers, both the translation process and the translators have been subject to gradual and facilitating changes. The equipment the translators have and the digitalized dictionaries have enabled the translators directly focus on the translation process, and the required time has substantially decreased. So this has always been perceived as a positive development by the translators. However, especially within the last three years, the sector has changed more rapidly, has become more digitalized, and has reached another dimension.
Congratulations, we have a baby named MT (Machine Translation)!
Business operations, communication, learning, etc. are faster than ever in today’s world, and this requires the translation process to take much shorter. So the translation and localization companies have been working on MT and trying to create databases for maximum benefit from them. What is the position of translators at this point? Leaving literary translation aside, translators mostly edit, revise, and proofread especially when the technical texts are in question. And speaking for myself, putting up resistance to this evolution does not bring any benefit to you.
For translators, especially the new graduates and students of the translation and interpretation departments and the translation studies departments, I recommend being open to changes and digitalization rather than sticking to conventional methods. Being captivated by the feeling of “Translators are not needed anymore” does not help. Starting from the education period, using any opportunity to professional translation works — regardless of whether they bring an income or not — will contribute to comprehensive vocabulary knowledge. Getting familiar with the translation programs as early as possible will also facilitate adaptation to the editing of machine translation texts.
