My Conversations with ChatGPT
Machine Translation (MT) and translations generated by AI have brought about a paradigm shift in the translation industry. The output of MT will continue to improve, especially when associated with clients’ translation memories and human editing. Language Service Providers are adapting and are including MT in their processes, when MT is applicable. While linguists will continue to be essential in the process, their role will shift from that of translators to validators of content generated by MT. At Excel Translations, we wanted to know what AI thinks about all of this and decided to have an open conversation on the matter with ChatGPT. I will regularly publish a question and ChatGPT’s response, uncensored.
QUESTION 137:
How do linguists maintain their business without losing clients to MT tools?
Chat GPT’s Response:
Linguists can maintain their business in several ways despite the presence of machine translation (MT) tools:
Specialization: Linguists can focus on areas where human expertise is essential, such as creative translation (literature, marketing, etc.), legal translation, medical translation, and localization. These fields often require cultural understanding, nuance, and context that machine translation struggles to grasp accurately.
Quality Assurance: Linguists can emphasize the quality of their work compared to machine translation. Human translators can ensure accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and tone, providing a level of quality that MT tools may not consistently achieve.
Customization: Linguists can offer customized services tailored to the specific needs of their clients. This could include providing additional services like editing, proofreading, and post-translation support, which machine translation tools often lack.
Education and Consultation: Linguists can educate their clients about the limitations of machine translation and the benefits of human translation. By demonstrating the value they bring in terms of accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and understanding, they can maintain client trust.
Adaptation and Integration: Rather than seeing machine translation as a threat, linguists can integrate it into their workflow. They can use MT tools as a starting point for translation and then refine the output to ensure accuracy and quality, thus combining the efficiency of machine translation with the precision of human expertise.
Building Relationships: Building strong relationships with clients based on trust, reliability, and communication can help linguists retain clients despite the availability of machine translation. Clients often prefer working with someone they trust and who understands their specific needs and preferences.
By emphasizing their unique strengths, providing high-quality services, educating clients, and adapting to technological changes, linguists can maintain a thriving business in the face of competition from machine translation tools.
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