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January 23, 2026, 7:08 AM EST. London-based Irish-language translator Timothy McKeon says AI tools cut his EU work by about 70%, leaving him to polish machine translations he rejects because it trains the software that replaces him. He warns, 'the more it learns, the more obsolete you become.' The debate extends worldwide as generative AI transforms language work. A 2024 survey by the UK's Society of Authors found more than a third of translators lost work to AI and 43% saw income drop. In the US, an Oxford analysis links higher Google Translate use to slower translator job growth; researchers estimate roughly 28,000 translator jobs would exist today without machine translation. The trend is fueling a global scramble, with groups like the Guerrilla Media Collective seeking other income streams.