Harlequin France, which is owned by HarperCollins, has just confirmed that they’re shifting away from human translators with an eye to robot replacements.
As The Bookseller reported this morning, this change has been in the works for several weeks. According to a letter published by the French Literary Translators Association and the collective En Chair et en Os (In Flesh and Bone: For Human Translation), “dozens of translators who regularly work with Harlequin [France]” have been informed that their contracts are ending, ASAP.
The human translators were told that their work will be now done via Fluent Planet, a communications agency that uses machine translation software. “Freelance proofreaders”—Lord help them—will sculpt the results.
A Fluent Planet spokesperson told The Bookseller that the company’s distinct hybrid model combines “in-house language assistance tools with systematic human translation carried out by professional literary translators.” Their offerings are not intended as a replacement for human expertise or editorial judgment, but a “support tool.”
HarperCollins France also made milky defense of what’s clearly a bottom line decision. A spokesperson there told Publishers Weekly that “no Harlequin collection has been translated solely using machine translation generated by artificial intelligence.” But the ‘yet’ feels implied.
This move follows similar announcements made by other publishing imprints, including the U.K.-based Taylor & Francis. Translators are irate about the writing on the wall.
The FLTA condemned this latest move from a mega-house as “unacceptable,” and chided the “mentality that robs book workers of their expertise and creativity, and deprives readers of access to vibrant and humane literature.”
Romance writers (though really, all of us) are reminded to push for No AI clauses in their contracts, whenever possible. Up with writers! Down with algorithms!
