AI-using translation agencies have defeated agency-dependent freelancers in two ways.
One way, of course, is their successful replacement of human professionals with AI for the translation process step, something which has been progressing for several years, starting long before the AI hype, and is now accelerating.
But there’s another indirect defeat that is making itself felt on social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Translators seem to be obsessed with AI, and recently many have not much to say that doesn’t involve AI, directly or indirectly. The attention and time of translators have been captured and occupied by something about which they can do very little.
The battle has clearly been lost, and I think the time has come for translators to direct their attention and efforts to moving in new directions, and for almost all freelancers those new directions do not involve using AI themselves, nor do they involve hanging around and doing mind-numbing post-editing for rates that are laughable.
It’s time to move on. Talking about the horrors of AI and the evil or stupidity of its users doesn’t make much sense when your’re being successfully replaced with AI by your clients and you’re powerless to stop them.
As I said, the battle has been lost. It is time to think about moving on.