As this goes to press, Amazon Prime “Day” is coming to an end. But I will leave that hanging as an exercise in foreshadowing. This week has seen widespread anger in the translator community over the launch of Globescribe, a platform that offers AI-generated translation services to publishers and indie authors.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
As with AI-generated narration, the pitch is a simple one. Creatives have a lot of rights tied up in each of their works that are currently un- or underexploited because taking the action needed to unlock them is too expensive. And (the pitch is) AI is the solution. In this case, Globescribe is offering translation for $100—at least a zero and then some multiples short of what a human translator would cost.
Human Nuance vs. Machine Precision
Translators are, naturally, worried. The first form of response is one that we saw a lot in the early days of AI’s explosion: that machines can never capture wonder and nuance and imagination the way humans can.
You will remember that I have always been skeptical of that line of reasoning, because it’s true and very powerful… until it’s not. Globescribe claims that in tests, audiences couldn’t distinguish with any degree of accuracy between AI and human translation. They would say that, but even if it’s puff, it will very soon not be.
The other arguments are also familiar: that this sidelines human creatives, and that it’s translators now, but it will be other members of the creative community next.
A Bookshop.org Jab at Bezos
So back to Prime Day, and my “and finally” story comes courtesy of Bookshop.org’s jibe at the expense of Amazon. Bookshop.org is the platform where you can buy books from anywhere in the world and have a proportion of the sale go to your local indie bookstore. And it is not, needless to say, a fan of Amazon. They tend to run a campaign on buying indie (you will remember that the anti–big box day at the end of February brought in sizable revenue for indie-facing enterprises).
This Prime Day, their campaign is a riff on the invitations to Jeff Bezos’s recent three-day wedding in Venice. Bezos’s invitation looks like a homage to 1990s Clip Art—but unintentional.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
