Welcome to the Machine

People sometimes ask me if I'm worried that machine translators and AI language software is going to replace my job, or if I have lost any clients to this software. Although in the last several years machine translators and CAT tools have seen a growing database of lexicon and better language appropriation, I have actually seen a rise in clients and opportunities due to a few factors.

1. There is more need today to have multiple languages on a website or manual or content of any kind as the audience has gotten a lot bigger, call it globalization or technology proliferation etc. A website is not limited to the borders of the country it belongs to, and business today is generally conducted on both a local and international scale.

2. CAT tools (Computer-Assisted Translation) and machine learning actually HELP the process rather than hinder it. A good translator would not ONLY rely on a CAT tool though it helps the flow of his or her process. So when people tell me machines are taking over, I say "yeah they are, they're taking over the mundane tasks of translation".

3. Everybody writes differently. I find my toughest translation projects are not the ones that have complicated language or a lexicon that involves a wide and varied terminology, but one where the person who wrote the original content did not do a very good job, that is they are either bad writers or do not have a good grasp of their own language. In those cases, I often have to rewrite the original content to make it sound more appropriate for the target language. Otherwise it's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.This no machine translation software can do.

4. Finally and most importantly id the 3rd adage I always think of: A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Let's that if you have a 3-page document to translate and you run the content through the best possible AI translation software on the market today. Let's say that software translate your document almost perfectly but flubs a few words here and there, so 99% that 1% is going to render the document unusable for market consumption.

The fact is that the human brain and the human brain can not only decode language but actually decode meaning and that is the real force behind good translation, not the translation of words but the reinterpretation of meaning. That is my personal approach when working with projects that require that  "human touch" which is 99% of the clients that come through my e-door.

I hope this has helped to demystify and ease this looming worry over how machines will take over our lives. Machines are a part of our lives, they make our lives easier. How things will be in 15-20 years no one can say but for now all I can see is more work to do, more career to develop and more help to get from machines.