I don't doubt it but as has been said many times before, it's still very early days. I keep saying the people laughing at it now are probably the ones more likely to be replaced faster. I was using google translate to navigate countries a decade ago without issues.
A universal translator will likely be implemented soon and I've seen early functioning versions from Japan 8 years ago. A.I was already creeping in a long time before the LLMs but people just didn't notice. It isn't only about the niche elitists, it's also how the mainstream audience percieves it. If the translator becomes more common place as a cheaper alternative 90% of avaiable positions are likely to be wiped out. Invevitably adaptations depends on your own willingness to use and work with it and a lot of that does come from your own knowledge. If a person can't improve their own game using AI I think that is on them.
I have seen footage of a tutor allowing a class to use the AI with a progressive mindset. She ended up scolding the entire college class for literally handing in almost the exact AI assignment with no adaptation. These are dodos as far as I'm concerned.
Way too many points to address here in a forum format. This can be a 2-3 hour convo over coffee lol.
No need to explain to me about AI training. I did that part time for a while. Yep, I was working as an AI trainer talking to it for hours to improve it. Plenty of agencies do that.
Also, I get where you’re coming from with the japanese app, but that’s completely irrelevant. Nobody’s full time job is walking around with tourists to help them as wheres the best ice cream place near the hotel, nor does anybody study to do that, nor is that a “professional skill” for lack of better term.
Translators have been using expensive software to speed up work load for decades.
I’m not laughing at AI itself, the friend I mention earlier has colleagues who give university courses on AI uses in translation (not whatever garbage social media course you talked about).
Hell, I’ve been approached by some agency(outsource sleezebag in india) that provides translation services to big news stations in other countries. He used multiple AI tools to transcript and translate videos in languges he does not speak. Sent them to me and asked me to confirm the parts that are correct, and edit whatever errors are there.
I told him, whatever dude, I’ll just charge you full price as if I translated it. Most people in this field dont charge by hours but by text length.
He obviously couldn't keep up with my quotes as his clients use him as a cheap outsource. Might as well call it a scam for noobs.
Either way, from my expertise in the field and most high credential professors I talked to, AI is not replacing any translators in my lifetime.
