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113 sats \ 2 replies \ @stack_harder 9h \ on: AI Killed My Job: Translators - Blood in the Machine AI
bro, i can tell you as a former translator back in the day, that the end of the golden age was when Google Translate came online, been downhill ever since.
Yes, it was quite shit (Google Translate), but it was good enough for a lot of people and it marked a shift.
A lot of the translation gigs became consolidated into agencies that never pay that well, and the rest is history (for example, https://www.loekalization.com/blog/blog/2025/01/17/blu-digital-the-blue-abyss-of-subtitle-hell/)
I have fond memories of doing my translation work to my own schedule and then walking to the publishing house once a month to get a cash envelope.
But as with many things, you can probably still find a job using lang skills + something else, but gpt is pretty great at reworking texts and localizing, writing things in certain styles.
What is sad is that it takes a lot of work and many, many years to develop the skills to do the job, and when few people care about it or respect that anymore, it does feel like a loss
Thanks for sharing the story. I've been using Google Translate for years and recognize the "good enough" feeling of it. If I may ask, did you re-tool or did you move to a non-lang industry?
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Well at the time i was living in Russia at after the 2008 crisis hit off, a lot of the translation clients started slashing their budgets anyway , i started teaching more and just keeping a bit of translation side work, but later transitioned into working in broadcast media, then pivoted away from that into online business and e-com
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