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Glen Farley's avatar

Nice to hear from you Luke, been a while. Sounds like you made a wise and effective transition away from human translation. It's incredible how fully and quickly AI has wiped out human translation as a profession. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

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trdr's avatar

Hi Glen, good to hear from you too. Even in software the long claws of AI are having an effect. Although perhaps the barrier to confirming quality is higher vs asking a native in the target language. For now!

Looks like medical, technical and a few other specialist areas are holding up somewhat better.

What are you up to at the moment?

Speaking to a friend about ways to make a living away from screens has been interesting. Although I am not sure I can detach myself from the info-slurping just yet.

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Glen Farley's avatar

I went in the opposite direction from you - IT PM for many years, went over to translation (Norwegian to English) when I spent a year at a cottage in the woods in Canada in 2012 and wanted work I could do remotely. Got some loyal direct clients in Norway who stayed with me for many years, but even they are slowly going over to machine translation. I even occasionally use AI myself to both translate and proof some texts. You are correct that there are several niche subject areas that still use human translators but I think it's just a matter of time before AI swallows them too.

The last few years I made yet another transition and now work as a professional artist making kinetic sculptures and exhibiting them in Europe and North America, also running kids machine sculpture workshops. Quite happy with hands-on, people to people work. I'm sure you will be as disciplined and successful in your new career as you were in your last. Stay well.

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trdr's avatar

Meant to get back to you sooner Glen, apologies. Really interesting work, I looked up your site. Good on you for adding to the sum total of human culture and generating reflections and ideation around current and future directions.

I've just seen a piece painted by "an AI" sell for over $1m[1], so I'm not sure any of us are entirely safe! But when it comes to the singularity, infinite energy and information, perhaps we'll be free to operate as we please with cultural and societal contributions taking the fore again. We can hope! Big discoveries and innovations required to fight climate change and to stem civil unrest and manipulated thought. Hopefully AI can play a role in synthesising and generating novel ideas.

I'm having a bit of an internal struggle about my future direction, truth be told, and it looks like some amalgamation of knowledge-sharing, entertaining and corporate problem solving will be the outcome. The dichotomy of a desire to take advantage of the sheer scale of the internet (this exchange we're having now!) and the need to stay grounded and not get overhyped by it, and to do the bread and butter things too. That's shaping things for me. How does retirement look in 10 years, 20 years, beyond? Hard to plan at the moment.

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[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/nov/08/alan-turing-portrait-ai-da-robot-painting-sale-price-auction

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Glen Farley's avatar

Thanks for the thoughtful answer Luke.

How does retirement look in 10 or 20 years? That will depend on how the world, or the part of it where we live, will look. I feel it seems easier to paint a dystopic picture than a positive one, with authoritarianism, misinformation, armed conflicts and the mean global temperature all on the rise. But I also feel strongly that painting this kind of picture, especially for young people today is almost criminally selfish, pulling up the ladder after oneself as it were. So I have to work a little harder and find the points of light in the darkness; AI's successes in diagnosing diseases, finding new antibiotics and creating vaccines, every time a progressive leader is elected (the UK, Moldova, Brazil), the widespread protests against the war in Gaza, and the explosion of green energy production coming on stream around the world.

Hope you find a resolution in your search for a future direction!

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