Your CAT tool is not the boss of you
Hello AI-curious translators, Two recent questions came up in my webclass that I think you'll want to hear the answers to. Not just because they’re common... but because the answers might surprise you. First: Can [...]
What if CotranslatorAI could just write the regex for you?
Hey fellow translators (especially the ones who’ve ever stared at a regex pattern like it was alien code)... Let me tell you what usually happens. You try to write a regular expression for something. Maybe [...]
AI promised more. So where’s the payoff?
Hello from the land of half-finished workflows, Many translators seem to land in one of two camps. Camp A: “AI will replace us all.”Camp B: “I’ve tried these tools and they’re just not helping.” What’s [...]
What one translator taught me about pricing smarter (even when AI speeds you up)
Dear architects of meaning in a world that just wants speed, Today I want to give you something useful. Not a theory or a vague tip. A new lens you can use to decide how [...]
CotranslatorAI shortcut not doing anything? This will fix it
Hello fellow translation tacticians, Ever hit a keyboard shortcut in CotranslatorAI and get... nothing? No error. No output. No feedback at all. Before you assume something’s broken, here are the two usual suspects that stop [...]
Why “just let AI do it” can quietly blow up your translation project
Hello word wranglers of the freelance world, Here’s something AI still gets embarrassingly wrong: counting. Just this week, one of our AI Mastery for Translators... And Beyond students ran into a frustrating glitch. She was [...]
What I said about hitting 1,000 words/hour — and pricing for it
Welcome back, translator in the trenches, Last Thursday, during my live webclass, someone asked a series of sharp questions that cut right to the heart of what it means to be a translator in 2025. [...]
Why your prompts keep breaking — and what to do instead
Dear translator juggling clients, style guides, and AI that forgets stuff, There’s a common mistake many translators make once they’ve got their hands on good AI tools. They try to do too much with a [...]
Whatever You Do, DO NOT Read Dave’s Article
This is a public service announcement. A schism has opened. A rebellion. An act of heresy. Yes, Dave — that Dave — has posted an article in AI4LanguageProfessionals suggesting a “better” way to execute the GAIT workflow [...]
CotranslatorAI is not a CAT tool (and that’s a good thing)
Hey translators, This one’s been coming up a lot lately, so let’s clear it up once and for all. Do you need a CAT tool to use CotranslatorAI? Nope. CotranslatorAI isn’t a CAT tool. You [...]
The MTPE squeeze is real. Here’s how to stay sane (and paid)
Hello again, fellow translator, If you’ve felt discouraged by the quality of projects landing in your inbox lately, you’re not imagining it. More and more translators are getting stuck with MTPE jobs... lower rates, higher [...]
From 0.04 EUR per word to 60 EUR/hour
Hello to the translators who want to keep winning in a market that’s changing faster than they’d like to admit. This week I exchanged emails with a medical translator in Greece. Eighteen years in the [...]
GPT-5 in CotranslatorAI: Here’s How to Get It Running in Minutes
Hello, translators who like to stay two steps ahead! OpenAI has just dropped GPT-5. If you’ve been curious how it handles real translation work, you can spin it up in CotranslatorAI pretty quickly. Here’s the [...]
GPT-5 Just Dropped… and Translators Are Still Finishing Their Coffee
Hi Steven, GPT-5 has arrived. And the reaction? Let’s just say… it’s more of a polite golf clap than a standing ovation. Sure, the AI world lit up with the usual launch buzz. But in [...]
Add any OpenAI model to CotranslatorAI (even the cheap ones)
Until now, CotranslatorAI only let you manually add one custom model at a time. That’s changed. You can now add and manage as many OpenAI models as you want — so you can work with the exact models you [...]
The Simple Prompt That Fixes Your Smart Quotes Problem
Have you ever found yourself spending extra time fixing straight quotes in your translations, just to get them looking right in Word or your CAT tool? If so, you’re definitely not alone. Recently, a [...]
Event: The Future of Translation—Join Us Tomorrow to See What’s Next
Yesterday I received a message from a registrant to my webclass. Her comments echo what some in our profession are thinking right now: “Steven, I have to tell you that your optimism is fundamentally [...]
Are you buying into a translator-hostile narrative?
It's no shock that the Big LSPs, MT providers, and CAT tool makers are pushing for automation in translation. AI has given them the tools to do this, and they're finding ways to minimize [...]
What is anchor prompting and why is it important in an AI-powered translation workflow?
A few years ago, while translating my PhD dissertation, I discovered a method that completely changed how I use AI in my translation work. It’s called anchor prompting, and it’s the foundation for getting [...]
New wine and old wineskins in the context of translation today
Let's consider the biblical parable of new wine and old wineskins in the context of translation today. Generative AI provides us with new wine (an entirely new paradigm). Yet the industry mainstream is trying [...]
Some things I want to tell my small-LSP clients
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the evolving dynamics between translators and LSPs, especially in the face of advancing AI technologies. The big players might be banking on automation. But there's a different, higher path [...]
CotranslatorAI has caught up with OpenAI!
When we started developing CotranslatorAI just over a couple years ago, OpenAI was already on GPT 3.0. Within a short time, they raced ahead to 3.5 and then 4.0. But now, after a few [...]
It’s time for a new narrative for small LSPs and translators in the age of AI
There’s a lot of talk these days about how small LSPs are “doomed” in a world being reshaped by AI—usually from the so-called Localization Illuminati, the biggest industry players. Maybe you’ve heard this: big [...]
Is a bigger context window in the latest AI models a game changer for translators?
As a translator, advancements like GPT-4.1 are intriguing, especially with the promise of a massive context window. But does this mean we can simply input entire books or thousands of translation memory segments and [...]
Are we just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?
Are we rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic? I still remember sitting at the 2006 ATA conference in New Orleans, hearing about new MT development and giving myself five more years in the field…. [...]