Translator and interpreters remain key in this multicultural world.
Unfortunately AI is drinking your milkshake and eating you lunch. Within the next five years, there will be nobody willing to pay you for these things. It's sad but it's honestly the way it is. Better find different income streams before then.
Don't care how sophisticated machine translation has become, my lunch will not get eaten, but..
That's all fine but machines can already understand all Polish legal language (which makes sworn translators done for) and they are getting very good at translating other texts. You're a fool of you think they won't be making you obsolete very soon. Pick a new specialisation. This one won't pay you much longer.
The naysayers have been clamoring for years with the same song and dance. Still don't buy it. My business hasn't suffered since clients smarten up to quality over speed. AI can translate ideas, but still a human touch is needed for culturally exact subtlety!
but still a human touch is needed for culturally exact subtlety!
For novels, yes. Translating novels and poetry is however the holy grail of translation work and very rare. Most translators never get a sniff at it. I did a novel on the Polish bestseller list some time ago and there was loud wailing among some of the Warsaw translators who would have liked that gig. Nevertheless, it was decided by them giving out a sample to translate and (unusual for the posher end of translation work in PL) was transparent.
Translating novels and poetry is however the holy grail of translation work and very rare.
Yes - this is the hard stuff that machines really can't do well enough. Translating poetry is almost like writing poetry. The level of understanding what you're reading and conveying the same meaning, with exactly the right word choices and sentence structures, is completely beyond any but the best. It helps if someone is immersed in that writer's work, hence you end up with academics who specialise in a particular country's literature, or a particular area of that country's literature, translating things. It can get very, very niche.
In comparison, translating legal documents is a piece of p*ss, because there's no nuance there and style doesn't matter. However, sworn translators need to be physically present in the notariusz's office during proceedings and they have accountability, which are two things AI can't really do yet (if Claude messes up the translation of your notarial deed, what are you going to do? Sue Anthropic? They gave you a disclaimer). But at some point soon, sworn translators will move into a more editorial/executive role and the actual translation will be done by machines, as is happening across all fields right now, from writing to coding and more.
Btw Lyszko I was far too dire earlier re. replacement by machines. What you should see this as is an opportunity. It's a cliche and it's what AI is being sold on now, but it's true: you can massively scale up your output, use AI to do the bulk of the heavy lifting, check its work and ensure it's correct, and focus on the harder stuff that's more challenging/fun and needs your human skills and attention. Everyone who is smart is seeing it in these terms, while the rest whine and go extinct.
If I knew Polish well enough to be a translator, I would:
- Seek work for international organisations looking for someone to translate their materials into Polish (e.g., their website and marketing collateral), assuming they don't already have in-house people doing it. International company money goes a loooooong way in Poland...
- Do translation work for Polish cultural organisations, including museums and galleries, because god knows they need help. Even at the likes of Zacheta and the National Museum, you see bad stuff in exhibition captions.
- Do sworn translator stuff, because it's still a reliable source of work for the time being.
- Spend the rest of my time chasing up 'art' stuff like novels, poetry, movie subtitles etc. The fun stuff that looks super cool on your CV.
My Polish is terrible, though, so no way am I making any money that way anytime soon. But the world still needs translators - you just have to be able to see what's the chaff and what's the wheat and use all the digital tools at your disposal to maximise your productivity and target your skills in the best places.
AI can translate Polish with a 90-95% accuracy now. However, it's going to take years before AI can be "sworn," so translation jobs may still be relevant in Poland and elsewhere.
