It is natural to trust an answer more when it comes back in your own language and reads smoothly. With AI tools, that trust needs a small adjustment. These tools often work less well in languages other than English, and the answer can sound just as fluent whether it is right or wrong. Knowing this helps you use the tool for what it does well and protect yourself where it is weak.

Why the language matters

AI chatbots and translation tools learn from enormous amounts of written text. Most of that text is in English. There is far less text available in most other languages, and even less in languages spoken by smaller or newer communities in the United States. Because the tool had less to learn from in your language, it has fewer patterns to draw on, so it makes more mistakes and leaves more out.

Researchers have measured this, not just guessed at it. Studies comparing the same health questions in different languages found that AI answers were less accurate in Spanish than in English (Gonzalez Fiol et al., 2024) and rated weaker in Arabic than in English (Sallam et al., 2024). One study tested the same health questions in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Hindi and found a clear gap across languages in how correct and how verifiable the answers were, with English coming out ahead. The researchers titled the study “Better to Ask in English” (Jin et al., 2024). The pattern is consistent: the answer in your language can be weaker than the same answer in English, even when it reads clearly, and the gap tends to be largest for languages with the least text available online.

The weakness is not always obvious. An answer in your language may be shorter, vaguer, or missing a step compared with the English version, while still sounding natural. It may keep the polished tone and drop the useful detail. Because it reads smoothly, nothing warns you that something was left out.

What this does not mean

This is not a reason to stop using your language. You have every right to ask questions and get help in the language you think in, and for many everyday tasks the tool will serve you well. The point is to add a checking step for the answers that matter, the same way you would with any AI answer.

What to do about it

Here are three practical habits.

• Ask in your language, and check important answers against a LINC guide. The guides on this site are written and reviewed in plain language for people in your situation. If an AI answer disagrees with a LINC guide on something important, trust the guide and confirm with a person.
• For a high-stakes answer, try English too. Asking the same question in English, or having a friend, family member, or community health worker ask it, can sometimes give you a clearer or more complete answer that you can then compare with what you got in your language. Two versions side by side often reveal where one of them went wrong.
• Say it back to check your understanding. After you get an answer, put it in your own words and ask a person you trust, “Did I understand this correctly?” This catches both translation slips and plain misunderstandings.

Small ways to get a stronger answer

You can shape how you ask so the tool gives you more to work with. None of these replace checking an important answer, but they help.

• Ask for both languages at once. Type “Answer in [your language] and in English.” Reading them side by side makes it easy to spot where the shorter one dropped a detail.
• Ask it to keep key terms in English. Medical and legal words are often clearer in their original English, because that is the form clinics and forms use. You might add, “Keep medical and legal terms in English, then explain each one simply in [your language].” That way you learn the word you will actually hear at the clinic.
• Ask short, plain questions. One question at a time, in simple words, tends to work better than a long, complicated one. If an answer feels thin, ask a smaller follow-up.
• Ask it to define its own terms. If the answer uses a word you do not know, ask “What does that word mean in simple language?” A weak translation often hides in a single hard word.

Signs the answer may be thin

Look for these when you read an answer in your language:

• It is noticeably shorter than you expected for the question you asked.
• It is vague where you needed a specific step, number, or name.
• It mixes languages on its own, or uses a word that does not quite fit.
• It repeats itself instead of answering, or drifts off the question.

Any of these is a reason to try the question again in English, or to bring it to a person you trust. A thin answer is not your fault and it is not a sign you asked wrong. It is the tool showing its limits.

This is why the interpreter right matters

The language gap in AI is one more reason a human interpreter is so important. An AI answer in your language is a convenience with real limits. A free, qualified interpreter at the clinic is a right, and it exists precisely so that language never stands between you and safe care. Under federal law, most health programs that receive federal funding must provide a qualified interpreter at no cost to you, and you do not have to bring your own or use a family member. For the specific words to use when you ask, and what to do if a clinic pushes back, see Your right to an interpreter.

This is true in a crisis too. If you call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, you can ask for your language and be connected to an interpreter in more than 240 languages, at no cost (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). Language is never supposed to keep you from help.

Use AI in your language to get ready and to understand the general picture. Keep the interpreter for the moments that decide your care.

Sources

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Is the 988 Lifeline available in other languages for non-English speakers? https://988lifeline.org/faq/calling-the-988-lifeline/faq-is-the-988-lifeline-available-in-other-languages-for-non-english-speakers/
• Gonzalez Fiol, A., Mootz, A. A., He, Z., Delgado, C., Ortiz, V., & Reale, S. C. (2024). Accuracy of Spanish and English-generated ChatGPT responses to commonly asked patient questions about labor epidurals: a survey-based study among bilingual obstetric anesthesia experts. International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia, 61, 104290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijoa.2024.104290
• Jin, Y., Chandra, M., Verma, G., Hu, Y., De Choudhury, M., & Kumar, S. (2024). Better to ask in English: Cross-lingual evaluation of large language models for healthcare queries. Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024 (WWW ‘24), 2627–2638. https://doi.org/10.1145/3589334.3645643
• Sallam, M., Al-Mahzoum, K., Alshuaib, O., Alhajri, H., Alotaibi, F., Alkhurainej, D., Al-Balwah, M. Y., Barakat, M., & Egger, J. (2024). Language discrepancies in the performance of generative artificial intelligence models: an examination of infectious disease queries in English and Arabic. BMC Infectious Diseases, 24(1), 799. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-024-09725-y

LINC is a research prototype, not a medical or legal service. Translation can be wrong; you have the right to a free, qualified interpreter. For anything high-stakes, do it with a community health worker or someone you trust. In a crisis, call or text 988, or 911 for immediate danger.