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Washington State Hotline Callers Seeking a Spanish Speaker Were Connected to AI Bot With an Accent
Callers to a Washington state Department of Licensing hotline were offered the choice of getting information in English, Spanish and several other languages. But when residents pressed two for Spanish, instead of being connected with an español speaker, they were instead put through to an AI-generated woman’s voice that speaks English with a heavy Spanish accent!
No bueno, says Washington residents like Maya Edwards, who discovered the AI-gone-wrong gaffe when her Mexican-born husband tried to use the Spanish-language option when he had a question about his driver’s license, Oregon Live reported
The wait time for an English-speaking rep was long, so he opted for the Spanish speaker.
Instead he got a Department of Motor Vehicles version of onetime reality star Hilaria Baldwin, who famously faced controversy for her fluctuating Spanish accent.
“It was hilarious to us in the moment because it was so absurd,” Maya said, according to the site. “But at the same time, it has real accessibility issues for people who call in every day and need to speak in a different language other than English.”
Social media users had a field day with the blooper. “AI lying on its job application,” quipped a Reddit user.
“Press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish-accented English, 3 for English-accented Spanish, or 4 for unintelligible state employee who will put you on permanent hold while they look up your account information,” joked another.
In a statement, Washington’s Department of Licensing apologized for the error and said it fixed the problem while appearing to shift blame to Amazon, which provides the translation platform.
