Evaluating Google Translate as an AI-Powered Translation Tool: Strengths, Limitations, and Implications for Multilingual Communication

Introduction: Machine translation (MT) tools have revolutionized communication by breaking down language barriers. This research investigates the effectiveness of Google Translate (GT), a leading MT platform, as a bridge between languages. Objectives: The paper explores Google Translate’s strengths and weaknesses through a multifaceted analysis that considers various factors like language similarity, text genre, and text length. Results: The findings reveal that GT excels at factual communication in high-similarity languages and short texts. However, it struggles with capturing nuances, achieving fluency, and handling complex content in low-resource languages or specific domains. Conclusions: Despite its limitations, GT remains a valuable tool for basic communication and accessibility. By acknowledging its capabilities and limitations, we can leverage GT strategically while advocating for advancements in domain-specific training, natural language processing, and user feedback integration to unlock its full potential as a tool for global understanding and collaboration