  Citation: Kirov, V.; Malamin, B. Are Translators Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?. Societies 2022, 12, 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12020070 Academic Editors: António B. Moniz, Bettina-Johanna Krings, Oriol Homs, Ilona Buˇ ci ¯ unien ˙ e and Csaba Makó Received: 14 January 2022 Accepted: 8 April 2022 Published: 12 April 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). societies Article Are Translators Afraid of Artificial Intelligence? Vassil Kirov 1, * and Bagryan Malamin 1 Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 13A Moskovska Str., 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria; bagryan.malamin@beyond4-0.eu * Correspondence: vassil.kirov@gmail.com Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a leading technology in the digital transformation. AI is expected to cause job losses in general, initially in professions associated with routine activities, and subsequently in the field of creative professions. The present article analysed the results of the authors’ own empirical sociological survey of the attitude of Bulgarian translators towards AI, and the ways in which it will change their profession. Most of them perceive artificial intelligence and automatization as threats to the profession. According to them, digital technologies and AI will modify the profession by relieving human translators of the routine, technical part of the job. Hence, translators will predominantly edit machine-translated texts, and teach artificial intelligence to perform machine translation. The conclusion of the analysis demonstrates that, in the case of Bulgarian translators, such pessimistic scenarios about mass jobs destruction are not justified. In addition, expectations of a deterioration in quality of work as a result of digitalization in the near future are not justified in the case of the translating profession. The present survey results serve as a basis for further research about the impact of artificial intelligence on other creative professions. Keywords: AI; translators; creativity; jobs 1. Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the major technologies leading the digital transfor- mation and the fourth industrial revolution 1 , and machine–human–computer symbiosis is a major feature of the phenomena, such as virtual reality, computer games, smartphone apps, smart watches, and information searches through voice recognition, etc. Other exam- ples are the home assistants created by Google and Amazon, and text prediction in writing messages. In the academic literature, the dominating view is that the digital transformation is impacting work and employment radically, with the implementation of AI and other digital technologies resulting in substantial job losses [1]. However, until recently, the major interest in AI’s impact was focused on routine professions, and those with activities and tasks that could be improved through automa- tization and AI applications. Lately, this interest was extended to the spheres of artistry and creativity, given that AI also influences them. Creative jobs are a good example to this effect, and in recent years, the media has spread information about the ability of AI to paint pictures, compose music, brings old photos to life 2 , reply to messages 3 , and create graphic designs 4 , etc. But what exactly is AI’s impact on creative professions? Creativity is one of the human abilities considered most difficult for AI to emulate. Creative professions rely on creative thinking, and require a non-standard approach to tasks; they usually involve art, culture, fashion, marketing, or communications. Creative professionals are people such as fashion designers, photographers, directors, writers, journalists, and translators. Technologies have been part of the translating profession for many years now, initially with the use of word-processing software, and later with various digital dictionaries, correcting software, and translation-organising software. Software programmes that can Societies 2022, 12, 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12020070 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/societies