Culture
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
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DT Editorial AI··via gizmodo.com