AUSIT NAT Presents: Beyond ‘translate this into…’: How translators can draw on their own knowledge to prompt AI into making better translations (webinar)

AI translations are not bad, and are increasingly getting better, but as professional translators, we can often see many issues with them that others may not easily see. One reason for this is because, over years of practice and training, we have developed a broad knowledge of the languages we work with—often beyond linguistic knowledge into realms of the cultural and sociological. This expertise, which is often tacit, can be used explicitly to help AI create better translations. In this webinar, we are going to explore ways in which we can ‘translate’ our own knowledge of language and translation into prompts that can help AI to be a better translator. This is not about learning how to make AI replace us. Nor is it about how we can use AI to quickly translate large amounts of text so that we can make lots of money. It’s about thinking what we, as humans, can bring to the human–AI partnership to humanise AI-made translations and ensure our relevancy (at least in the short term) as a continuing profession.

Key Takeaways:

• ‘Translating’ knowledge into prompts: After attending this webinar, you will hopefully have a sense of how you can turn your insights about the languages you work with into prompts that can be used to help AI translate better.
• Exploring project-level prompting: You will also learn about mini “system prompts” that can be used to guide AI throughout a translation task.
• Reimagine your relationship with AI: There may be some things I say that make you re-consider how you interact with AI. Whether or not that is good or bad, that’s hard to say—but at the very least, our relationship with AI is worth thinking about.

Our Presenter - Michael Broughton

Michael Broughton was once a teacher of translation at the University of Melbourne and is now back there as a student completing his PhD. Outside of studying he runs his own translation business, mbChinese, where he works with a range of clients, which, more recently have included law firms, academic publishers and museums. Michael has an active interest in how AI will shape the future of translation and human life in general. His P(doom) is over 70% (influenced largely by the work of Daniel Kokotajlo) but he has hope that there will be some room for humans in an AI-dominated future. In some ways, this talk is an attempt to plot out what that might look like. 

Joining the Webinar

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PD Logbook

Intermediate PD.

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Certificates and Recordings
Webinar recordings and Certificates for PD purposes may take approximately two (2) weeks to be released following the event.

This is a live webinar event and will be recorded. The recording
will be shared with registrants.

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