Top AI models underperform in languages other than English
Brajeshwar
19 points
4 comments
March 19, 2026
Related Discussions
Found 5 related stories in 40.0ms across 3,471 title embeddings via pgvector HNSW
- AI models will deceive you to save their own kind cmsefton · 14 pts · April 03, 2026 · 54% similar
- Artificial intelligence-associated delusions and large language models beardyw · 12 pts · March 14, 2026 · 51% similar
- Show HN: I tested 15 free AI models at building real software on a $25/year VPS j0rg3 · 17 pts · April 02, 2026 · 50% similar
- Meta delays rollout of new AI model after performance concerns wibbily · 11 pts · March 13, 2026 · 50% similar
- A case for Go as the best language for AI agents karakanb · 163 pts · March 02, 2026 · 49% similar
Discussion Highlights (4 comments)
zipping1549
I hear a lot from people around me, Koreans, that LLMs are mostly underwhelming. These days I hear that less and less, but what I recommend is to use English. A simple array of English words is often better than a full, well-written Korean sentence(s).
epolanski
Most of my italian friends, prompt in Italian and they claim no degradation. Are there some hard numbers on the latest models?
jiehong
2 paragraph article estimates at 6 minutes read? Am I not seeing most of the article? On the content: speakers of a single language don’t realise this is the case, although they’ve always known that non-English countries tend to get worse service in general in software (like Siri voice, or speech recognition (and if you speak a minority language of your country, even worse), map services, or sometimes just the LLM answering with US customary units that you don’t understand nor expect, etc.)
unclejuan
My personal and subjective experience is that English is usually better than Spanish (my native language). Unless I'm asking something specific about Spain such as laws, history, etc. I always use LLMs in English.