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How accurate is Google Translate compared to professional translation services?

In 2019, a re-evaluation using the same input as an earlier study showed a 34% improvement in Google Translate's accuracy.

A 2021 study by the UCLA Medical Center revealed that Google Translate maintained the general meaning in 82% of the translations.

Google Translate performs better when translating content from other languages into English, with only 0.28 mistakes per 10 words, compared to 0.59 mistakes per 10 words for Italian.

While Google Translate is getting better, it still struggles with nuance, idioms, and contextual understanding, which professional translators excel at.

Google Translate is powered by neural machine translation, which uses artificial intelligence to learn from vast datasets, improving over time.

Google Translate supports over 100 languages, while professional translation services often specialize in a smaller set of languages, allowing for deeper expertise.

Professional translators can provide cultural context and ensure the translation aligns with the intended tone and style, something Google Translate struggles with.

For legal, medical, or other high-stakes documents, professional human translation is still considered more reliable and accurate than Google Translate.

Google Translate's accuracy can vary significantly depending on the language pair, with some language combinations performing better than others.

Offline mode in the Google Translate app can be useful for travel, but the translations may not be as up-to-date or accurate as the online version.

Google Translate is becoming more accessible, with new features like gesture controls and more readable translation results.

While Google Translate is impressive, it is still not a replacement for professional human translation services, especially for critical or high-stakes content.

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