Translation competence in the age of generative AI: Debates, dilemmas, directions

Until recently, the description and modelling of the competences and skills needed to translate successfully, and the ways in which they develop, have seen a steady evolution and predictable expansion, largely to accommodate technological advances and an increasing awareness of situatedness. However, the impact of neural MT and, now, generative AI (GenAI) has been unprecedented in rapidly transforming the core tasks of translators. Together with a proliferation of creative roles in a diversifying language industry, the volatility indicates a paradigm shift that is beginning to supplant even the once stable epithet "translator". It also questions the efficacy of current descriptions of skills and confronts educators with dilemmas of balancing specialisation and generalisation, routinisation and adaptivity, core and transferable skills. This chapter considers relevant aspects of modelling competences and their development and examines related debates and dilemmas engaging educators and employers in the current and foreseen language-industry climate. It outlines directions for training in the age of translating with(out) GenAI, proposing an approach that, alongside core textual, interlingual translation and digital skills, combines transferable skills with human-machine/human-agent interaction (HMI/HAI) competence.