ProZ.com Translation Forums

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Thanks

Lieven Malaise — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 10:29:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Lieven Malaise
Post title: Thanks

[quote]Ragnar Egilsson wrote:

Hello from 2026:
Yes. [/quote]

Thanks for bringing this poll up again. It's an interesting question to follow up upon.

My view: I believe it's something to worry about, if you are a full time translator that still aims to earn a decent living, that you don't use a system like DeepL extensively. To remain profitable, being fast enough while still delivering high quality has become increasingly important, and for that DeepL is very important to me.

At the same time the development of AI, of which DeepL is a part, is obviously also a reason to worry for translators, but that's part of a bigger picture.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | yes

Ragnar Egilsson — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 10:04:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Ragnar Egilsson
Post title: yes

Hello from 2026:
Yes.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Most probably is.

Daryo — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 23:52:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Daryo
Post title: Most probably is.

[quote]Bibsy wrote:

I was wondering whether there is truth in the rumour that Deepl keeps copie of whatever I am translating when I am using the free version. Does anyone know if that's true, please? [/quote]

If it's technically feasible - and it definitely is - you can safely assume that DeepL is doing it. Especially when given the continuously falling costs memory and processing power are not much of a limiting factor.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | @Bibsy

Mr. Satan (X) — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 05:19:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Mr. Satan (X)
Post title: @Bibsy

[quote]Bibsy wrote:
I was wondering whether there is truth in the rumour that Deepl keeps copie of whatever I am translating when I am using the free version. Does anyone know if that's true, please? [/quote]

DeepL's privacy policy (see section 3 and 7):
[url removed]

Notwithstanding their claims, as long you don't have access to their infrastructure, there's no way to verify whether they abide by their own policies. Always assume they log everything and keep your data forever.

[Edited at 2023-08-04 11:43 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Deepl

Bibsy — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 17:19:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Bibsy
Post title: Deepl

I was wondering whether there is truth in the rumour that Deepl keeps copie of whatever I am translating when I am using the free version. Does anyone know if that's true, please?

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Of course!

Stephen Emm — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 23:00:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Stephen Emm
Post title: Of course!

Translation, like other industries, is slowly being "de-skilled" - first CAT software, then MT, then google translate, then DeepL and next AI.

Of course, translators will still be required in highly-specialised areas and this does not preclude translators in niche languages who have a stable of well-paying direct customers, but the industry will be increasingly unattractive for young translators and translation rates will continue to stagnate/decline for most.

An interesting article in the Telegraph cites a translation degree as being the second worst in terms of "value for money" and career prospects.

[url removed]

Of course, there will soon be articles on how there is a "shortage of translators" - capitalist code speak for "why aren't people prepared to work for the rates we are offering".

It should be an interesting ride...

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | That's about right

Dan Lucas — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 05:56:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: That's about right

[quote]David GAY wrote:
So, apparently, we are not in the same boat and some have already capsized and lie on the sea bed.[/quote]
Good morning David, I have been expecting you and your merciless refusal to use selective quotes. But yes, some have already capsized, some are trawling with nets in the shallows, some are fishing with long lines at the surface, some are diving for pearls...

Regards,
Dan

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | So...

David GAY — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 19:55:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: David GAY
Post title: So...

[quote]Dan Lucas wrote:

[quote]Carlos A R de Souza wrote:
There's only so much we can do, but does that mean we shouldn't try to organize at all?[/quote]
I don't think "there's only so much we can do". I think trying to organise in this environment is pointless and naive, for all the reasons already enumerated. If I were convinced that there were no future in a particular industry I wouldn't waste my time on an initiative I considered futile. I'd be using my energy and talents to switch careers.

[quote]Anne Brackenborough wrote:
We're all at different stages in a process that will go different ways at different speeds depending on our language combination and and specialities. It makes no sense to argue as if it's all down to our translating skills and no more.[/quote]
Good point, but I think there are multiple albeit similar processes, rather than one monolithic process. There are different areas of specialisation, which in turn influences the need (or otherwise) for confidentiality, and also the perceived scarcity of translators, and of course the language pair itself carries with it a significant cultural load. Some clients are more risk-averse and slower to adopt new technology than others.

However, by the same token I would caution against assuming everybody is going to end up at the same level, at least in the medium term. I suspect there will be significant local maxima and minima in terms of the degree of MT use.

Rather than seeing the future end point as the uniform bottom of an artificial swimming pool, I speculate that it will resemble a rocky sea bed with significant variations in topography - boulders large and small, corals, patches of sand, hollows, kelp beds, clefts, undersea mounts, even spires of rock patrolled by shoals of fish, and of course tides and currents moving through it all. There may well be opportunities in such an environment.

As for the long term - pfft. We're all dead anyway. And that's about the only verifiable statement in this thread so far.

Regards,
Dan
[/quote]
So, apparently, we are not in the same boat and some have already capsized and lie on the sea bed.

[Edited at 2023-07-25 19:56 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | DeepL is better than Google

finnword1 — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:19:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: finnword1
Post title: DeepL is better than Google

Google Translator thinks that "legal briefs" means judicial underpants in Finnish.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Not in the same boat = multiple processes

Anne Brackenborough (X) — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 13:49:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Anne Brackenborough (X)
Post title: Not in the same boat = multiple processes

Good point, but I think there are multiple albeit similar processes, rather than one monolithic process.
I appreciate your summary of the point I made :)

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Tides and currents

Dan Lucas — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:58:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: Tides and currents

[quote]Carlos A R de Souza wrote:
There's only so much we can do, but does that mean we shouldn't try to organize at all?[/quote]
I don't think "there's only so much we can do". I think trying to organise in this environment is pointless and naive, for all the reasons already enumerated. If I were convinced that there were no future in a particular industry I wouldn't waste my time on an initiative I considered futile. I'd be using my energy and talents to switch careers.

[quote]Anne Brackenborough wrote:
We're all at different stages in a process that will go different ways at different speeds depending on our language combination and and specialities. It makes no sense to argue as if it's all down to our translating skills and no more.[/quote]
Good point, but I think there are multiple albeit similar processes, rather than one monolithic process. There are different areas of specialisation, which in turn influences the need (or otherwise) for confidentiality, and also the perceived scarcity of translators, and of course the language pair itself carries with it a significant cultural load. Some clients are more risk-averse and slower to adopt new technology than others.

However, by the same token I would caution against assuming everybody is going to end up at the same level, at least in the medium term. I suspect there will be significant local maxima and minima in terms of the degree of MT use.

Rather than seeing the future end point as the uniform bottom of an artificial swimming pool, I speculate that it will resemble a rocky sea bed with significant variations in topography - boulders large and small, corals, patches of sand, hollows, kelp beds, clefts, undersea mounts, even spires of rock patrolled by shoals of fish, and of course tides and currents moving through it all. There may well be opportunities in such an environment.

As for the long term - pfft. We're all dead anyway. And that's about the only verifiable statement in this thread so far.

Regards,
Dan

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Er...

The Shredder — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:08:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: The Shredder
Post title: Er...

[quote]jyuan_us wrote:

It has been almost 5.5 years since the initial post, but MT in general hasn't been much improved. It probably won't be much improved in another 5.5 years.

[Edited at 2023-07-23 10:39 GMT] [/quote]

I thought it was improving exponentially?

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Thank you for your comments!

Carlos A R de Souza — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 13:14:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Carlos A R de Souza
Post title: Thank you for your comments!

[quote]Dan Lucas wrote:
I don't think anybody here is pretending that "everything is all right". Some people are doing fine, some are not doing so well, and some have left the profession. The business - like many others, not coincidentally - has changed over the past 20 years and will continue to do so.
[/quote]

"MT translation won't seriously affect translators / won't improve" is another way to pretend things are all right – because if it's never a threat, why should you care?

[quote]Dan Lucas wrote:
But the uniting and collective effort stuff has, I am afraid, no grounding in economic reality. Translation is a global, deregulated industry, with no requirement for a physical presence at the location to which the service is provided. Regulation at the country level tends to be rare and presumably would in any case have very little effect. If somebody wants a manual translated from German to English, no regulations in, say, Germany, would apply to a translator in the US or Japan.
[/quote]

There's only so much we can do, but does that mean we shouldn't try to organize at all?

[quote]Anne Brackenborough wrote:
Sorry to state the glaringly obvious, but we are not all experiencing the same changes.

(...)

We're all at different stages in a process that will go different ways at different speeds depending on our language combination and and specialities. It makes no sense to argue as if it's all down to our translating skills and no more.
[/quote]

Exactly, Anne. You said everything. Usually, the less samples a language has, the less machine translation can be trained, which impacts negatively on the quality.

Romance languages, for instance, are heavily used by the UN and WHO, which train machine translations with their materials.

Japanese and Chinese do have many texts that can be used to train those systems as well, but what complicates matters is their ideogram writing system – Japanese, for instance, tends to leave a lot implied by the context. Language models fare better in these contexts, but "traditional" machine translation systems do not.

[Edited at 2023-07-24 13:18 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Obviously!

Vieslav Vieslavovich — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:18:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Vieslav Vieslavovich
Post title: Obviously!

[quote]Anne Brackenborough wrote:

Sorry to state the glaringly obvious, but we are not all experiencing the same changes.

My German clients already thought the English they learned for years in school, on the Internet and on holiday was good. Now they have a tool that makes it better. All they have to do, in their opinion, is read the machine translation and "check it's translated right" - and it costs them nothing, compared with a professional translation, which costs them something. Great!

Reasonably, they don't have the same confidence when it comes to Mandarin, Japanese, Serbian or other less familiar languages.

The quality of the machine translations also still differs from language to language. So clients using machine translation from Mandarin, Japanese, Serbian etc. into German can see that it's not perfect yet. But the translation from English reads like decent German.

We're all at different stages in a process that will go different ways at different speeds depending on our language combination and and specialities. It makes no sense to argue as if it's all down to our translating skills and no more. [/quote]

Indeed. I can tell Polish -> English is near-excellent with DeepL, and the other way it's very good to poor, depending on the field and quality (clarity) of the source. The main issue remains consistency of terminology and phraseology, but these issues will probably be resolved with the advent of AI.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | We're not all in the same boat

Anne Brackenborough (X) — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:14:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Anne Brackenborough (X)
Post title: We're not all in the same boat

Sorry to state the glaringly obvious, but we are not all experiencing the same changes.

My German clients already thought the English they learned for years in school, on the Internet and on holiday was good. Now they have a tool that makes it better. All they have to do, in their opinion, is read the machine translation and "check it's translated right" - and it costs them nothing, compared with a professional translation, which costs them something. Great!

Reasonably, they don't have the same confidence when it comes to Mandarin, Japanese, Serbian or other less familiar languages.

The quality of the machine translations also still differs from language to language. So clients using machine translation from Mandarin, Japanese, Serbian etc. into German can see that it's not perfect yet. But the translation from English reads like decent German.

We're all at different stages in a process that will go different ways at different speeds depending on our language combination and and specialities. It makes no sense to argue as if it's all down to our translating skills and no more.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | The same old chestnut

Dan Lucas — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:47:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: The same old chestnut

[quote]Carlos A R de Souza wrote:
pretending that everything is all right creates a "head-in-the-sand" mentality where we all pretend nothing is wrong, but that prevents translators from uniting and improving work conditions.[/quote]
I don't think anybody here is pretending that "everything is all right". Some people are doing fine, some are not doing so well, and some have left the profession. The business - like many others, not coincidentally - has changed over the past 20 years and will continue to do so.

Even those who are currently comfortable recognise, I think, the potential (remember we are discussing forecasts, expectations, and assertions, not facts) for disruption down the road. Responses vary from "It'll be different but fine" to "It's the end of the industry", which is as one might expect given the enormous diversity of linguistic services and those engaged in providing them.

But the uniting and collective effort stuff has, I am afraid, no grounding in economic reality. Translation is a global, deregulated industry, with no requirement for a physical presence at the location to which the service is provided. Regulation at the country level tends to be rare and presumably would in any case have very little effect. If somebody wants a manual translated from German to English, no regulations in, say, Germany, would apply to a translator in the US or Japan.

Given the previously tremendous diversity in the backgrounds and conditions of freelancers around the world, how are you going to get translators to agree on anything, let alone a complex initiative such as organising labour for higher rates and so on?

Let me phrase the question differently: can you find a successful precedent for such a global undertaking in any other industry, let alone a deregulated one like translation?

This has been [url= [url removed] #2846029]discussed[/url] umpteen times before, and no persuasive arguments have been put forward by the "let's organise!" side. It's a pipe dream.

Regards,
Dan

[Edited at 2023-07-24 11:00 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | I'd say another 3-5 years

Vieslav Vieslavovich — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 06:29:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Vieslav Vieslavovich
Post title: I'd say another 3-5 years

3-5 years I'd say, but you'll call me a false prophet, I know.

Naturally, it's not like the industry is going completely down any time soon, but downward pressure on rates and declining demand is likely going to be massive. The market is probably going to do to us what Google has done to its workforce lately.

There's two types of translations: critical (legal, marketing, accounting etc.) ones and not-so-critical (operating manuals for internal use, MSDS, corporate bullshit for internal employee reference) ones. Hard to tell which ones are in majority, but the latter group is likely to just quit the market in the coming years.

In the recent years, when I see a translation done by another translator, I can definitely tell it's made by a human, because it contains a certain number of grammar errors and has stylistic flaws.

[Edited at 2023-07-24 09:02 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | We need to rethink our marketing.

Carlos A R de Souza — Mon, 24 Jul 2023 01:50:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Carlos A R de Souza
Post title: We need to rethink our marketing.

[quote]jyuan_us wrote:

It has been almost 5.5 years since the initial post, but MT in general hasn't been much improved. It probably won't be much improved in another 5.5 years.

[Edited at 2023-07-23 10:39 GMT] [/quote]

MT has become better. For example, many machine translation systems would have trouble with relative pronouns in multiple sentences. Now, many systems are context-aware, and pretending that everything is all right creates a "head-in-the-sand" mentality where we all pretend nothing is wrong, but that prevents translators from uniting and improving work conditions. Is this what we want for us as a category?

Like I mentioned in another topic, the fact that many of our colleagues have trouble raising rates should ring an alarm and our solidarity. If our profession weren't pressured by MT and AI, we wouldn't have posts of colleagues considering leaving for other professions, questioning the future of translation as a means of living (at least a full-time one, as opposed to something to supplement income), and we wouldn't see the professionals in the subtitling world questioning their job. Why would you quit a well-paying profession with prospects?

Of course, I personally still think that while MT has improved, humans won't completely disappear, for a few reasons that can never be solved:

If a human translator screws up, in theory a company can go after them. Google Translate / DeepL offer the service as-is, and aren't interested in solving that issue, as it would require them to be more accountable.

If you rely completely on Google / Microsoft / DeepL / AI for translation, any of these companies being gone could hinder your workflow. Suppose that you have a company, and you ditched all human translators for a workflow that is 100% specialized and reliant on the Google Translate API. What if Google decides to discontinue the API, or change it in a way that requires you to drastically change your workflow? Your company will be in a bad spot.

A human translator offers convenience, and will make sure to follow whatever workflow is needed to get the problem solved.

Now, if we want to be seen as offering more than a commodity, we as an industry need to market ourselves differently. We need to show that translation is not just about translating words, but we need to do so in a way that is painless and convenient to our clients. It's similar to how people can make a pizza at home or buy a premade one from a supermarket, but they still go to pizzerias for the experience of going out and socializing. But it needs to be a collective effort.

[Edited at 2023-07-24 01:53 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Life goes on

Dan Lucas — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 20:54:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: Life goes on

[quote]Dominic D. wrote:
Well, let's wait and see[/quote]
How long should we wait, beyond the 5 years that have already passed? Some of us have been making decent money over that time. Maybe the next 5 years will be different, but jyuan_us makes a reasonable point: the sky is always falling in translator land. It was falling twenty years ago for some people (for proof, just go back and read early forum posts about plummeting rates).

I do think we'll be seeing some interesting changes over the half-decade to come.

Regards,
Dan

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Wait and see

Vieslav Vieslavovich — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 12:33:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Vieslav Vieslavovich
Post title: Wait and see

[quote]jyuan_us wrote:

It has been almost 5.5 years since the initial post, but MT in general hasn't been much improved. It probably won't be much improved in another 5.5 years.

[Edited at 2023-07-23 10:39 GMT] [/quote]

Well, let's wait and see until it gets a solid boost from AI, with AI scanning and correcting the pre-translated text for inconsistencies, logical errors and more... And then AI will also do super-accurate OCR. And then we're all bound to pick a different career path.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Time flies

jyuan_us — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 10:01:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: jyuan_us
Post title: Time flies

It has been almost 5.5 years since the initial post, but MT in general hasn't been much improved. It probably won't be much improved in another 5.5 years.

[Edited at 2023-07-23 10:39 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Vanity...

Carlos A R de Souza — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 19:51:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Carlos A R de Souza
Post title: Vanity...

The problem is that due to vanity, translators closed their eyes and usually fell into a few patterns.

1. This technology sucks; it'll never replace jobs / my job.
2. I'm too good to be replaced.
3. If you fear being replaced, it's because you suck.

---

This allowed the MT industry to gain a lot of ground, which they will obviously not yield. Those translators didn't realize that MT got progressively better, that nobody is safe, and that maybe, some clients don't care so much about quality.

It doesn't help that MT progress is uneven; it's very good in some language pairs, but still bad / unacceptable in rare language pairs. This may give a false perception to some translators that the translators who ARE being affected are bad professionals.

The result is a world where they are replaced by tools that are "good enough"; sure, there may be jobs, but the discounts may be so huge that eventually, translators may not be able to pay their bills from translation alone, pushing humans out of the industry.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Depends on state response

Larissa Hansford — Wed, 17 May 2023 02:22:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Larissa Hansford
Post title: Depends on state response

I definitely worry about AI, especially as a relatively young translator.
I'm not sure AI will ever be able to convey the nuance of, say, literature. But I do worry that governments will start to accept documents for visa applications etc via AI translation platforms, on the understanding that AI does a good enough job at conveying meaning and is potentially less open to corruption.
At least in Australia that would make a big job to workflow for translators.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | This did not age well

David Jessop — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 06:10:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: David Jessop
Post title: This did not age well

[quote]Joëlle Bouille wrote:

As a professional translator, do you think DeepL could help you work quicker and boost your productivity, while providing the same top quality?

Definitely no. Complete waste of my time.

Does a published writer ask a 6-grader to help him, because said 6-grader is making "huge progress"? [/quote]

Now did it.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | but there will only be junk food

Thomas Johansson — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:00:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Thomas Johansson
Post title: but there will only be junk food

[quote]Tom in London wrote:

[quote]Andreas Baranowski wrote:

, machine translation will find its place and ultimately acquire an overwhelming market share. It’s just a question of time. [/quote]

....leaving the more discriminating part of the market to those of us who also never eat junk food.

:) [/quote]

I wish it were like that, but I suspect there is not going to be any such part of the market left.

The tendency is towards a market where everything will be taken over by MTPE, carried out by less competent people and at lower costs. No one will be requesting high-quality translations or even high-quality MTPE any more. More or less everything (except poetry, literature and similar exceptions) will be done through MTPE, and strong discounts will be enforced, leading to low quality output and low incomes for the workers.

This transformation is already almost complete within the EU institutions, which collectively form the single largest employer of translation services in the world and are setting the standard. (Today, at least 95% of all EU translations are MTPE jobs, and generally a discount of 30% is enforced, leading to hasty output by stressed translators, plagued by inconsistencies, incorrect terminology, clumsy formulations, nonsensical references etc.)

The only way to change this course of development is to generate a strong debate and awareness about quality (through studies, research, statistics, public statements from leading industry actors etc.), and make the agencies and all industry actors, incl. end clients, understand that in many cases MTPE jobs will lead to low and unacceptable quality unless it is carried out by highly competent linguists at processing speeds which (in many cases) cannot be compromised.

We need to generate a detailed and refined debate that leads to a sophisticated awareness of exactly when (or in what conditions) MTPE can be used and when it cannot, when it can be performed by a less competent linguist and when it cannot, and when it can be reasonably expected to generate time savings and when it cannot.

We have a battle to fight.

[Edited at 2023-02-28 22:31 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Shoot

Vieslav Vieslavovich — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:58:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Vieslav Vieslavovich
Post title: Shoot

[quote]Thomas Johansson wrote:

Machine translation is coming strong into our industry and an increasing number of translation jobs are being transformed into machine translation post-editing (MTPE) jobs, often carried out on the basis of a machine translation produced by DeepL or a similar technology.

This comes together with price cuttings. People working for agencies are already being forced to accept considerable discounts (30-50%) for MTPE jobs even if no time savings can be seen. ("Forced" in the sense that they'll lose work and income if they don't accept.)

The result of this development will be that traditional translators will be pushed out of the market and increasingly replaced by less competent workers who are willing to accept lower rates.

I would recommend all translators to prepare themselves for this development and start developing alternative sources of revenues. [/quote]

Damn, you hit me on the head with this just as I was sitting with an assignment late into the night, reflecting upon the miserable future of this industry.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Yes, it's a big threat

Thomas Johansson — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:55:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Thomas Johansson
Post title: Yes, it's a big threat

Machine translation is coming strong into our industry and an increasing number of translation jobs are being transformed into machine translation post-editing (MTPE) jobs, often carried out on the basis of a machine translation produced by DeepL or a similar technology.

This comes together with price cuttings. People working for agencies are already being forced to accept considerable discounts (30-50%) for MTPE jobs even if no time savings can be seen if done properly. ("Forced" in the sense that they'll lose work and income if they don't accept.)

The result of this development will be that traditional translators will be pushed out of the market (unless they accept producing low quality and work at lower incomes) and increasingly replaced by less competent workers who are willing to accept lower rates.

I would recommend all translators to prepare themselves for this development and start developing alternative sources of revenue.

[Edited at 2023-02-28 21:35 GMT]

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | Two kinds of professions

Guofei_LIN — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 06:40:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Guofei_LIN
Post title: Two kinds of professions

There are two kinds of professions:

For actors/actresses, fiction writers, artists, etc., they either become successful and earn huge money, or struggle at the bottom trying make ends meet. There's no room for them to learn and grow while being able to support themselves from income from the job.

For doctors, engineers, etc., they start at the bottom where they can still support themselves and gradually grow and most of them eventually climb to the middle where they can live a comfortable life. A few reach the top and become famous. These professions allow people to learn and grow while working on the job.

What DeepL does is changing the translation profession in a way that deprives inexperienced translators of opportunities to spend many years on the job to learn and grow while being able to support themselves. And even if you eventually become a very good translator thanks to the years of financial support from your parents, the reward is not as thrilling as those enjoyed by actors, writers, artists, doctors, engineers. Even though DeepL may take years, or maybe never, to be able to compete with the best human translators, they have successfully change the industry forever. We cannot pretend that nothing has changed and that we can carry on the business as usual.

In fact, I think the industry is fucked, unless your idea of translation industry includes only those limited number of top translators, excluding all those students, teachers, young beginners.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | As it happens

Daryo — Mon, 02 May 2022 02:34:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Daryo
Post title: As it happens

[quote]Tom in London wrote:

[quote]Daryo wrote:

Yes, old style photography has its charm, but the digital photography of today is not the grainy crap from 10-20 years ago. [/quote]

...Don McCullin
...Henri Cartier Bresson
...Robert Capa
...Irving Penn
...Robert Doisneau
...Robert Mappelthorpe
...Bill Brandt
...William Klein
...Julius Schulman
...Gabriele Basilico
...etc.

[url removed]

[Edited at 2022-05-01 18:54 GMT] [/quote]

As it happens, here speaks a man who do know a thing or two about photography, and about most of them. And I'm sure many of them would not be adverse to using the best digital cameras of today.

But, to go back to the main point of this thread, it's not that it makes MT any more suited for a totally different type of tasks.

Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about? | There speaks a man who has never heard of...

Tom in London — Sun, 01 May 2022 18:53:00 +0000

Forum: Poll Discussion
Topic: Poll: Do you think DeepL is something for human translators to worry about?
Poster: Tom in London
Post title: There speaks a man who has never heard of...

[quote]Daryo wrote:

Yes, old style photography has its charm, but the digital photography of today is not the grainy crap from 10-20 years ago. [/quote]

...Don McCullin
...Henri Cartier Bresson
...Robert Capa
...Irving Penn
...Robert Doisneau
...Robert Mappelthorpe
...Bill Brandt
...William Klein
...Julius Schulman
...Gabriele Basilico
...etc.

[url removed]

[Edited at 2022-05-01 18:54 GMT]