A recent observation highlighted a significant issue with AI translation quality, particularly with Meta's integration of its AI in Instagram videos. A content creator noted an increase in Spanish comments on her videos, despite her only using Hindi, leading her to discover that Meta AI was translating and synchronizing her videos into other languages.
This revelation raised concerns about translation accuracy, as she found the translations to be awkward and often inaccurate. In contrast, Google has made strides with its translation service, recently updating Google Translate to incorporate a neural machine translation engine. This upgrade allows the tool to analyze entire sentences rather than translating word by word.
A 2021 study from the UCLA Medical Center indicated that Google Translate achieved a 94% accuracy rate for English to Spanish translations, though it struggled with rarer languages, dropping to 55% for Armenian. The update aims to address issues such as idioms and local expressions, which often lose their meanings in direct translations, demonstrating a commitment to improving the overall translation experience.