Press “two” for the accent… Spanish?
For months now, people who call the State Department of Licensing Washington and request an automated service in Spanish they hear a voice from AI who speaks English with a strong Spanish accent. The agency has apologized and says it is trying to fix the problem.
Maya Edwardsa Washington resident, was introduced to AI’s accented voice last summer after her Mexican husband tried to use the Spanish option while searching for information about his driver’s license. He is bilingual, but saw that the wait time to speak to a customer service representative in English was long, so he pressed “two” for Spanish.
For Edwards, it was like a scene from “Parks and Recreation,” a documentary-style comedy show that satirizes local government.
“We found it very funny at the time because it was absurd”he said Thursday. “But at the same time, it has real accessibility issues for people who call every day and need to speak in a language other than English.”
Earlier this month, Edwards called the number again and found the error persisted. He posted a video of the call on TikTok, which racked up nearly 2 million views.
The Washington Department of Licensing said in a statement that it was trying to fix the Spanish option and figure out how it happened in the first place. He noted that the self-service option includes 10 languages and runs on new AI-powered technology. It was not immediately clear if the issue had affected other languages; Efforts by The Associated Press to use telephone service in some of the other languages on Thursday did not result in additional accented voices.
“The DOL apologizes for the error and apologizes to its customers for any inconvenience.”says the statement. “An unfortunate byproduct of expanding services is that the DOL found problems with the self-service option.”
The agency declined to reveal the name of the AI provider providing the translation service, referring the question to WaTech, the state’s interagency IT service. An agency spokesperson did not immediately provide the name of the supplier after receiving voice and email messages from AP requesting it.
On Thursday morning, the call line was still ringing after a message, in English, acknowledging that some translation services were not working properly.
When an AP reporter followed the prompts for options in Spanish, he encountered an English-accented voice saying only numbers in Spanish.