It’s wonderful that this technology works, but what’s not wonderful is that the people who are supplying the data that make it work—real, biological, bilingual humans—have become insecure. Human translators have suffered a loss of career prospects that mirrors what happened to investigative journalists, recording musicians, photographers, and others. We’re pretending that the people who know how to translate are obsolete, when in truth they’re still needed. Isn’t it some kind of sin to tell someone that they’re obsolete when it isn’t true?
