This, unfortunately, is how the translation industry is going generally. We're increasingly asked not to actually translate anything ourselves, but rather to edit translations produced by machines for much lower rates. The work is a lot more tedious, though I'd welcome the capacity to get more done in less time if doing so really lived up to the fairy tale that computers are supposed to make our lives easier and give us more leisure time.
But technology is just never neutral. It is not a rising tide that lifts all boats; it always disproportionately benefits the people who control it at the expense of everyone else (duh).
Anyways, I'd consider making a pin that says "Talk To Me About Starting a Translators Union", but we mostly communicate by email/text anyways. Sigh...
Solidarity and best wishes to the current and former Duolingo staffers. This sucks.
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From the article:
The growing use of generative AI is coming at the expense of human workers at Duolingo, a popular language learning app.
Duolingo tells Bloomberg that it's cutting 10% of its contractors, months after its CEO said Duolingo is relying more on generative AI to develop its content.
“We just no longer need as many people to do the type of work some of these contractors were doing. Part of that could be attributed to AI,” a Duolingo spokesperson tells Bloomberg.
This comes after an unnamed Duolingo contractor claimed on Reddit that Duolingo had axed a large number of jobs. “In December 2023, Duolingo ‘off boarded’ a huge percentage of their contractors who did translations,” the contractor wrote. “Of course this is because they figured out that AI can do these translations in a fraction of the time. Plus it saves them money.”
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