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Washington State Residents Pressed 2 for Spanish. The Bot Spoke Spanish-Accented English Instead

Washington State's Spanish Hotline Spoke English in a Spanish Accent Due to AI Misconfiguration

When Washington residents pressed 2 for Spanish on the state's DMV phone line, they heard English words pronounced with a Spanish accent instead of actual Spanish. The embarrassing error was traced to Amazon's Polly text-to-speech system being fed English text with a Spanish-language voice.

Key Takeaways

DMV phone system used Amazon Polly's Spanish voice to read English text
TikTok video exposing the error went viral with millions of views
Error reveals gap between AI adoption and proper implementation
No Spanish speaker apparently tested the system before deployment
Raises questions about quality assurance across government AI deployments

DT Editorial AI·Mar 1, 2026·via gizmodo.com

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مجلس الشيوخ الأمريكي يوافق على ChatGPT و Gemini و Copilot للموظفين

Washington State's Spanish Hotline Spoke English in a Spanish Accent Due to AI Misconfiguration

مجلس الشيوخ الأمريكي يوافق على ChatGPT و Gemini و Copilot للموظفين

Washington State's Spanish Hotline Spoke English in a Spanish Accent Due to AI Misconfiguration