A groundbreaking study found that artificial intelligence understands Polish better than any other language, with English ranking only sixth. The University of Maryland and Microsoft led the research, testing 26 languages across several major AI systems, including OpenAI, Google Gemini, Qwen, Llama, and DeepSeek.
The researchers admitted surprise at the findings. “English did not lead as expected,” they wrote. “It finished sixth in long-text evaluations, while Polish came out on top.”
Polish Outperforms Despite Limited Training Data
Polish achieved an average accuracy of 88%, making it the most effective language for issuing AI commands. The Polish Patent Office noted, “Humans find Polish difficult, yet AI handles it effortlessly.” Despite limited Polish-language data in AI training, the systems performed with remarkable precision.
By contrast, Chinese ranked near the bottom, landing fourth from last in the overall assessment. Researchers found this particularly striking given the abundance of Chinese training data compared to Polish.
The Languages AI Understands Best
When measuring comprehension and accuracy, the top ten languages emerged in a clear order. Polish led with 88%, followed closely by French at 87%, Italian at 86%, Spanish at 85%, and Russian at 84%. English came next at 83.9%, then Ukrainian at 83.5%, Portuguese at 82%, German at 81%, and finally Dutch at 80%.
The researchers concluded that AI proficiency does not depend on how easy a language is for humans. In fact, machines seem to thrive in the very languages people find most complex.
