Hi,

My name is James and I'm a New Yorker who's been living in Madrid, Spain, for 30+ years. I am divorced and have shared custody of my 13 year-old son. Since the 1990s, I have been a freelance translator who once made a reasonable living in translating documents mainly in the world of business. Indeed, work used to be plentiful enough that I very often had no choice but to turn down job offers because I was overbooked. Here's my profile in the translators' portal proz.com: James Hollander.

But things have changed drastically since the advent of Artificial Intelligence in recent years. It has increasingly become a challenge to maintain a sufficient volume of work and make ends meet in an environment where businesses and individuals no longer look to human translators, but rather to ChatGPT or other chatbots when the need for a translation arises.

My profession is not dead (not yet). Translations that may affect business or investment decisions are still entrusted to human beings to ensure against the common mistakes or "hallucinations" often produced by AI. I am actively seeking out new clients and I am optimistic that I can turn things around over the next few months.

But that takes some time.

In the meantime, the costs of my divorce last year, of having to move, the need to make extensive use of credit cards and take out loans, pay down unexpected assessments by the Spanish tax agency unfairly targeting my more successful years as a professional, the costs associated with the recent passing of my mother have all hit me at about the same time and conspired to leave me in a difficult position.

If I am unable to stay afloat, I will certainly be forced to relinquish the shared custody I now have of my son, give up our apartment and fend for myself somehow.

I am launching this campaign to simply help make ends meet over the next few months, until my efforts to broaden my client base begin to bear fruit.

It goes without saying that I will be deeply thankful for whatever help this campaign is successful in attracting.