Why has Google Translate become so bad?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25188591
by thiht • 6 years ago
4 4 6 years ago

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?

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