AI-Accent Issue in Washington Licensing Department’s Spanish Service

For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who opted for automated service in Spanish encountered an unexpected surprise. Instead of receiving assistance in Spanish, an AI voice responded in English but with a pronounced Spanish accent. The agency has since issued an apology and resolved the issue.

Maya Edwards, a Washington resident, first became aware of this unusual voice last summer. Her Mexican husband sought information about his driver’s license. As a bilingual individual, he found the wait time for an English-speaking customer service representative too long, prompting him to select the Spanish option. What he heard was reminiscent of a scene from a comedy show satirizing local government.

“It was amusing in the moment due to its absurdity,” Edwards commented. “However, it highlights real accessibility challenges for non-English speakers who rely on this service.” Although she learned of the glitch last summer, Edwards encountered it again this month. Sharing her experience on TikTok, the video quickly amassed approximately 2 million views.

The Washington Department of Licensing released a statement expressing their apologies for the error. The glitch originated from a staff issue. The department mentioned that their self-service feature includes 10 languages, leveraging a new AI-driven technology platform. They acknowledged that expanding services can sometimes reveal unexpected issues.

While it remains uncertain if this problem affected other languages, attempts by The Associated Press to access services in various languages did not detect similar issues. However, on Thursday morning, the call line still featured the accented voice. A message in English informed users that some translation services were malfunctioning.

An AP reporter following Spanish-language prompts heard, “Your estimated wait time is less than ‘tres’ minutes,” with Spanish used only for numbers.

The Department of Licensing confirmed that their phone service platform is provided by Amazon, though they declined interview requests. AP journalists replicated the accented voice using an Amazon Web Services feature known as Polly, selecting “Lucia,” a voice that mimics Castilian Spanish. Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

Data journalist Aaron Kessler contributed to this report from Washington.