quote:
SEATTLE (AP) — Press “two” for Spanish ... accent?

For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who have requested automated service in Spanish have instead heard an AI voice speaking English in a strong Spanish accent. The agency has since apologized and says it’s trying to fix the problem.

Washington resident Maya Edwards learned of the AI-accented voice last summer after her Mexican husband tried using the Spanish-language option while seeking information about his driver’s license. He is bilingual but saw that the wait time for speaking to a customer service representative in English was long, so he hit “two” for Spanish.

For Edwards, it was a like a scene out of “ Parks and Recreation,” a mocumentary-style comedy show that satires local government.

quote:
“It was hilarious to us in the moment because it was so absurd,” she said Thursday. “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.”

https://apnews.com/article/washington-dol-spanish-accent-ai-3a1b8438a5674c07242a8d48c057d5a3

Link to TikTok video https://www.tiktok.com/@maya_maybee/video/7608347117161041183

This post was edited on 2/27/26 at 2:23 pm

2 ...

Report Post

Posted by Tarps99

Lafourche Parish

Member since Apr 2017

12161 posts

Posted on 2/27/26 at 2:37 pm to Shexter

Time to learn American.

Phone trees with press 1 for Spanish or 2 for Chinese etc.

Reminds me of someone who would hire some Spanish workers and any time they got something wrong he would just repeat it again in English just louder.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by oldtrucker