Poll: What is your reaction when a client bans the use of AI translation in non-creative areas?
Лице кое објавува дискусија: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ПЕРСОНАЛ НА СТРАНИЦАТА
Sep 20, 2025

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What is your reaction when a client bans the use of AI translation in non-creative areas?".

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Alex Lichanow
Alex Lichanow
Германија
Local time: 02:53
англиски на германски
+ ...
Appreciation Sep 20, 2025

Every client who admits that AI is no good in professional translation deserves my appreciation.
Also, "non-creative" areas are where precision and accuracy are of utmost importance. Correcting and rewriting the "hallucinated" mess AI leaves behind in these areas is a mind-numbingly tedious, unrewarding and shoddily paid task.


Daryo
M. Anna Kańduła
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
writeaway
Christine Andersen
Johan Beyens (X)
 
Daryo
Daryo
Local time: 01:53
српски на англиски
+ ...
Surprise, surprise ... Sep 20, 2025

Yet another poll question based on very optimistic assumptions about AI!

M. Anna Kańduła
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
writeaway
Maria Laura Curzi
Alex Lichanow
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Португалија
Local time: 01:53
Член (2007)
англиски на португалски
+ ...
I'll be very appreciative! Sep 20, 2025

Not only will I appreciate it, but I will say that they are more than welcome...

Josephine Cassar
Johan Beyens (X)
Maria Laura Curzi
Sunwoo Kim
Alex Lichanow
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
Liena V.
 
Josephine Cassar
Josephine Cassar  Identity Verified
Малта
Local time: 02:53
Член (2012)
англиски на малтешки
+ ...
A ray of hope Sep 20, 2025

It would be a ray of hope in more senses than just one.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Laura Curzi
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
Liena V.
 
Gregor Trebec
Gregor Trebec
Словенија
Local time: 02:53
англиски на словенечки
+ ...
behind the times Sep 20, 2025

Depends what job it is. If the word or the sentance is something "new" you can't expect a machine to translate it. I had a client for a website that banned machine translation. The text (website policy) was easily obtained from google translation and since he was paying something like 0,05eur per word...

[Edited at 2025-09-20 15:31 GMT]

[Edited at 2025-09-20 15:32 GMT]


 
WolfgangS
WolfgangS
Франција
Local time: 02:53
англиски на германски
+ ...
I never use AI, anyway ... Sep 20, 2025

...so

Maria Laura Curzi
IrinaN (X)
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Ines Radionovas-Lagoutte, PhD
Christine Andersen
 
Oscar Núñez Alfaro
Oscar Núñez Alfaro  Identity Verified
Костарика
Local time: 18:53
англиски на шпански
+ ...
It could be a great idea! Sep 20, 2025

The translation itself should be done by or with help of translators, but sometimes using AI for consulting or asking for suggestions could be a good idea to do things quicker and better. It depends on the situation, as a colleague of mine said one day!

 
Mario Chávez
Mario Chávez
Соединети Американски Држави
Local time: 20:53
англиски на шпански
+ ...
Generative AI should be banned, period. Sep 20, 2025

Whether it's a creative area nor not is a moot point. The aggressive hype which which AI manufacturers, peddlers, IT staff, software engineering/development students and practitioners, among others, is inexcusable. Their promises are so paper-thin as to be transparent. We are walking away, as a society (at least in the Western World), from scientific criteria: test, test, test, compare results. Test again, submit to peer review, etc.

You get the idea.

Fortunately, for n
... See more
Whether it's a creative area nor not is a moot point. The aggressive hype which which AI manufacturers, peddlers, IT staff, software engineering/development students and practitioners, among others, is inexcusable. Their promises are so paper-thin as to be transparent. We are walking away, as a society (at least in the Western World), from scientific criteria: test, test, test, compare results. Test again, submit to peer review, etc.

You get the idea.

Fortunately, for now, my translator colleague and I have pushed hard against AI adoption for writing and translation purposes in our workplace. But that's just the beginning. The institution's AI use policy is barely adequate and has a few holes.
Collapse


Maria Laura Curzi
 
IrinaN (X)
IrinaN (X)
Соединети Американски Држави
Local time: 19:53
англиски на руски
+ ...
Again Sep 20, 2025

I didn't vote. The results are false. Does anyone pay attention?

 
Philip Lees
Philip Lees  Identity Verified
Грција
Local time: 03:53
грчки на англиски
Other Sep 21, 2025

I ignore it. I don't let clients tell me which software, or other translation aids, I can or cannot use to help with my work.

If I decide to seek the assistance of AI with a particular translation job, that's my business.

By the time I've finished with the text, the client won't be able to tell, anyway.


Gregor Trebec
WolfgangS
Anna A. K.
expressisverbis
 
Alex Lichanow
Alex Lichanow
Германија
Local time: 02:53
англиски на германски
+ ...
Optimistic assumptions Sep 21, 2025

Daryo wrote:

Yet another poll question based on very optimistic assumptions about AI!


Personally, I absolutely love seeing how these AI-optimistic polls keep backfiring miserably because they encounter the informed opinions of actual professionals rather than blind hype.
On some deeply cynical level, I also love how this changes absolutely nothing—which just underscores how AI hypesters act like a cult. It reminds me of the many portrayals of "Church of Happyology" sectarians and pyramid schemers in films and TV shows who will always put on their brightest, fakest unsmile and change the subject whenever things get uncomfortable.


Maria Laura Curzi
 
Denis Fesik
Denis Fesik
Local time: 03:53
англиски на руски
+ ...
"Don't care" combined with "Appreciate" Sep 22, 2025

Don't care goes first because I wouldn't be using it anyway; my translations are now 100% human although I did use some MT in the past. And my work is almost all tech plus a bit of legal. Nothing too creative, and yet I know AI wouldn't help me much. At least not at the "Shut up and take my money!" level. When I want to use a source when working on my translations, I'd like to be confident that it was written by a person who knows his or her thing well. When finding an online source that has sig... See more
Don't care goes first because I wouldn't be using it anyway; my translations are now 100% human although I did use some MT in the past. And my work is almost all tech plus a bit of legal. Nothing too creative, and yet I know AI wouldn't help me much. At least not at the "Shut up and take my money!" level. When I want to use a source when working on my translations, I'd like to be confident that it was written by a person who knows his or her thing well. When finding an online source that has signs of being machine-translated from another language, I close it right away without reading. Generative AI output is a series of additional tests for me to do to ensure that what I'm reading is not complete baloney. Does anyone take pleasure in such exercises? Then I'm not that anyoneCollapse


Daryo
 


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Poll: What is your reaction when a client bans the use of AI translation in non-creative areas?






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