From the race to machine translation to generative AI: Implications for the Translator Education

Abstract: As with any other field of knowledge, technological advances have affected Translation Studies. The emergence of machine translation in the 1940s and CAT Tools almost 40 years later and the recent confluence of these with generative artificial intelligence have both optimized the work of translators and demanded of them. Particularly, they are increasingly demanding a new kind of knowledge, namely technological knowledge. In view of this scenario, this essay seeks to reflect on the work of professors in the technological education of translators. The reflections to be presented focus on teaching and learning processes related, above all, to machine translation technologies and translation memory systems in their interfaces with generative artificial intelligence. In the midst of these reflections, this essay provides some historical perspectives on the incorporation and impact of translation technologies on the translator’s work and education. Keywords: Translator Education. Machine Translation. CAT Tools. Generative Artificial Intelligence.