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The exploitation behind AI chatbots/LLMs & Co. - "Digital sweatshops"
Thread poster: Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 06:24
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Nov 9, 2023

Let's have a look at who and what's behind those trending tools (see more links below).
How many translators have contributed and are contributing to this? Why are there still job offers on Proz... See more
Let's have a look at who and what's behind those trending tools (see more links below).
How many translators have contributed and are contributing to this? Why are there still job offers on Proz for data annotation and the like?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/28/scale-ai-remotasks-philippines-artificial-intelligence/ (PAYWALL or email sharing)
Video on the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ae1eqz8eZk

https://www.reddit.com/r/passleapforceexam/comments/mcb0gr/modern_slavery_how_google_let_appen_and/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Lionbridge/comments/m6z6gf/tcr_60_lets_do_something_help_me_change_this/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/01/11/google-search-quality-rater-raise/

https://www.wahojobs.com/article/telus-international-ai
https://www.wahojobs.com/article/appen-and-telus-ai-simultaneously





[Bearbeitet am 2023-11-09 16:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse


Axel Dittmer
 
Anna Sarah Krämer
Anna Sarah Krämer
Germany
Local time: 06:24
Member (2011)
English to German
+ ...
Lots of job offers on Proz.com job offers aren't for translation anymore ... Nov 10, 2023

... but for post-editing or rating some kind of AI output. Proz.com is not a translator's page anymore (hasn't been for a while).

After scraping the web for 'free' content, AI companies hire cheap 'language workers' (native? who cares?) to make sense of the 'intelligent' output.

I used to be worried that my translation job might disappear, but then I've been using MT for years - on my own terms. I have been accepting MT jobs, at translation rates. So I guess if anyone o... See more
... but for post-editing or rating some kind of AI output. Proz.com is not a translator's page anymore (hasn't been for a while).

After scraping the web for 'free' content, AI companies hire cheap 'language workers' (native? who cares?) to make sense of the 'intelligent' output.

I used to be worried that my translation job might disappear, but then I've been using MT for years - on my own terms. I have been accepting MT jobs, at translation rates. So I guess if anyone out there wants quality output from the fancy ShiteGPT they got an expensive subscription for they will have to hire me (at translation rates) to make sense of the gibberish ShiteGPT invariably *will* produce. If I absolutely *have* to market myself as 'AI linguistics assistant' to keep working (at my current rates plus inflation) so be it. But I'd prefer they didn't layer bullshit upon bullshit. Translation could and should be honest work - but hasn't been for years for many people.

On another level, exploited workers a little bit all over the place have started to question their work conditions, and certain 'luddite' ideas have started to appear with the great hype around AI - and I think that's a great development - I'm happy to be part of it and continue searching for alternatives to the current situation.

A cooperative of translators, or translation agencies set up as cooperatives, would be a start.

As for a national or international body to support our rights, unfortunately I feel that many national translator's federations or associations haven't reacted appropriately to the digital shift in most translator's lives in the last decade(s) and are completely out of the loop.

Proz.com used to be helpful, and to a point had translators' interests in mind, but I feel since the last years that we are just being kept as fodder for the agency sharks here, and now quite obviously it has all been sold off to ChatGPT. Enshittification has reached Proz.com, I guess.

So what are we to do? Start our own online translator's guild? Maybe it's time for translators to explore the fediverse for a decentralized organization that doesn't live on a central platform. ▲ Collapse


Anton Konashenok
Zea_Mays
Adieu
Yasutomo Kanazawa
ibz
Axel Dittmer
Metin Demirel
 
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 06:24
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
note the paradox Nov 10, 2023

translators working for machines, not the opposite. (and for the profit of a few companies)

Rodrigo Rosales Sosa
 


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The exploitation behind AI chatbots/LLMs & Co. - "Digital sweatshops"







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