This really stopped me in my tracks:
OpenAI announced today that they are retiring their GPT-4.5 model, rolling users back to 4.1. They say the new 4.1 is faster, cheaper, and better than 4.5….
How can that be?
And there’s still no sign of a real “5.0.”
This is actually good news for translators like us.
Here’s the short version: The days of AI models leapfrogging each other with jaw-dropping improvements are slowing down. Instead, we’re hitting a wall—fancy new features keep showing up, but the core model’s are not making the same wild jumps.
For us, that actually opens up new possibilities.
Here are three practical ways you can take advantage of this shift right away:
1. Put methodology over model upgrades
Stop chasing every new model. The fundamentals stay the same, so focus your efforts on refining your process. The Micro Iterative AI Frameworks, the GAIT workflow…
These give you more direct control over the results and help you steer the AI where you want it to go.
2. Expect to get your hands dirty
GenAI is awesome, but it’s immature. It makes mistakes, it ignores instructions. Heck, it even refused to translate some text for me this week.
That’s normal.
When this happens, stay calm, and mix things up. AI outputs are simply the result of serendipitous alignments of complex relationships. There’s no rhyme or reason a lot of the time when things go wrong, and the best response is to make changes that “stir the pot” a bit, so to speak.
In this week’s coaching, we talked about a half-dozen or more ways to rejig a prompt when it gets stuck.
3. The human edge is back
For a long time, it felt like the AI might leave us all in the dust. But now, with things plateauing, the ball is back in our court. Take the time to learn effective AI techniques. When you know your tools, with the right approach, your workflow can deliver results that set you apart.
These days, everyone has access to similar models, but mastery comes from how you use them. Stay tuned if you’re interested in seeing how I’m applying these ideas in my own translation work, and how my students are as well.
Let’s leverage this moment and show what’s possible.
Wishing you successful translating!