AUSIT Webinar | 20250707 Beyond ‘translate this into…’: How translators can draw on their own knowledge to prompt AI into making better translations

Discover Effective AI Prompting to Bridge Your Human Insight with AI Translation Tools

AI translations are improving rapidly, but as professional translators, we often spot issues that others may miss. Our years of training give us deep, often tacit, knowledge of language, culture and context—knowledge that can be used to guide AI, not compete with it.

This webinar explores how we can turn our expertise into effective prompts that help AI produce better translations. It’s not about replacing ourselves with machines, or churning out bulk content for profit—it’s about how we, as humans, can shape the human–AI partnership and maintain our relevance in an evolving profession.

Key Takeaways:

– Translating insight into prompts – Learn how to express your linguistic and cultural knowledge in ways that help AI translate more effectively.
– Project-level prompting – Discover how to use short “system prompts” to guide AI throughout an entire task.
– Rethinking your AI relationship – Gain new perspectives on working with AI—whether inspiring or unsettling—and why this relationship matters.

Our Presenter – Michael Broughton

Michael Broughton previously taught translation at the University of Melbourne and now returns as a PhD student. He runs his own translation business, mbChinese, serving clients including law firms, publishers and museums. Michael is deeply interested in AI’s impact on translation and humanity, with a “P(doom)” over 70% (inspired by Daniel Kokotajlo)—yet still hopeful that humans will have a place in an AI-shaped future. This webinar is, in part, his exploration of what that might look like.