I am retiring, not from Japanese-English translation or interpreting, of course, but rather from efforts to discuss or even report on what AI use by translation brokers is doing to bring the translation careers of most freelancers to an end.
Such efforts are basically M3:
無理、無駄、無益
- Such efforts are futile; many translators seem willing to continue to believe that this is not happening or that it won’t happen to them, and, even if they listen to reason, they are powerless to stop the AI bulldozer. Almost all of them are wrong in thinking that things will work out.
- Such efforts are a waste of time, because of those denial behaviors.
- And those efforts gain me nothing.
Comments about things I feel should be discussed are not welcomed, not in the translators’ association I have been most active in here in Japan, Japan Association of Translators, and not in online groups of translators that are ostensibly not related to JAT.
The admins of one such group made that perfectly clear to me when I recently returned to Facebook reluctantly for the sole purpose of rejoining that group. I was told I would need submit to being the only member to be moderated. I was told not to criticize JAT, and I was given examples of acceptable and unacceptable forms of posts. And I had never been subjected to this barrage of instructions when I was an active participant in the group before. Perhaps they thought my leaving and returning would be a good time to fix the problem with me. It was preemptive micromanaging at its worst. I have a copy of that exchange.
Mentioning of the futility of trying to continue to work for agencies (which is decidedly no longer a promising path for survival) is seen as particularly annoying. Yes, the truth is sometimes very annoying, but ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
Fine. I’m gone.
People can believe what they want to believe. I am not going to spend any more time trying to dissuade people from their denial behaviors. It gains me nothing and doesn’t change anyone’s belief system.
I’m now deleting anything I have written anywhere that hints that I currently believe such efforts might be useful in helping freelancers. I do not believe that, because they are not helpful. That includes content on my website, my blog, and on the Pollyanna Paradise called LinkedIn, provided by Microsoft as a platform for mindless cheerleading and delusions of security.
Broker-dependent freelance translators can sit with their thumbs up their ass and enjoy post-editing work or perhaps learn how to give prompts to or teach AI. I have better and more enjoyable things to do than to try to dissuade them.
