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Why has Google Translate become so bad?
For the past year, I've noticed Google Translate becoming worse and worse. Every single time I search for what I know is a false friend, Google Translate systematically returns the obviously wrong translation.
The last examples I have are the followings:
- I searched "faux-ami" in English, and Google Translate returned "fake friend" instead of "false friend"
- I searched "en deux temps", knowing that "in two times" was not correct, and it obviously returned the wrong translation again.
All of this while proudly displaying a "Validated by contributors" badge with a shield.
I don't remember Google Translate being so bad in the past, what has happened? It has switched from a reliable translator for phrases and idioms to an unusable piece of garbage. Do we have insights on this?
- throwaway888abc 6y agoI can confirm same experience. It went backwards over time. Maybe some AI/ML "cleverness" V2. /rant
- blitblitblit 6y agoI know their Spanish translation has become very poor, I've been using DeepL as alternative for some time now.
- aurizon 6y agoA lot of translation IP has emerged and Google may have been getting lawyers letter and degrading it's translations instead of paying $$
- jfengel 6y agoHave you tried it with whole sentences, rather than isolated phrases? For example, the translation of: La Commission a donc réexaminé la question et a décidé d'adopter une nouvelle approche en deux temps. is given as: The Commission therefore re-examined the matter and decided to adopt a new two-step approach. Similarly, "fake friend" is a valid translation of "faux ami". Real-world example from the Web: "Ton partenaire te poignarde dans le dos et un faux ami ne t'aide que dans son propre intérêt." When I translate "Les mots "embrasser" et "embrace" sont faux amis." it gives me 'The words "embrasser" and "embrace" are false friends.' It may be that the idiomatic translation would be a more appropriate guess with no other context, but really that's a job for a dictionary rather than a translator, and it really should give both. The more context you give it, the more likely it is to make the right guess.