What’s left for humans in the age of AI? People, people, people

Reflection from a copywriter-transcreator who once was proud of knowing a lot of words

Once upon a time, I was proud of my proficiency in English and Chinese (English is my second language), and that I was able to live sufficiently by writing, mostly English, and translating for the banking and finance, IT and post education sectors in Hong Kong, among others. That time, having publishable language skills did put one in an advantageous position, such as people would come to you for correcting their language errors and enhancing their writing, and most importantly, at a charge, in addition to my main income source of copywriting and transcreating.

Still when Nvidia was trading at US$1 or so, I would reply, in a slightly arrogant manner, “Really?” when someone said knowing people was better than knowing words, thinking that the person must have done badly in school, and the opinion was just sour grapes.

And then BANG, it has all changed since the share price of Nvidia started to explode. I throw in the towel to language models. AI bot is added to my life’s essentials. Can’t imagine a day without it, just like the Internet and smartphone.

Writing and translation as an industry no more

It is not that writing and translation has become obsolete, but with AI, it is now a function within an organization, which it is likely to remain as such in the foreseeable future, while the space for it as an independent industry is diminishing, very fast, or faster than you wish.

Guanxi (“a term used in Chinese culture to describe an individual’s social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships”—Wikipedia) is ever more crucial

The young me did have some resentment towards weaving guanxi. I thought that was favored by people lacking marketable hard skills. Common sense is really common with BYOAI; therefore, to get ahead in the market, one needs guanxi not the everyone-can-access type of knowledge.

Work in teams

The quiet writer was nothing wrong or even admired in TV dramas, again, once upon a time. Today unless the writer’s name alone can garner paying audiences, offering just words is not enough. Copywriting could be irrelevant in the face of content creation, which is a mixed bag of words, still and moving images, sound, and technology. Form your team now.

Getting outside the comfort zone is daunting yet possible. Making the first step is the hardest, after which it all happens naturally. Move while you can still move.