The Washington state Department of Licensing's AI-powered automated phone system incorrectly provided English responses with a Spanish accent to Spanish-speaking callers instead of actual Spanish-language service for several months.
For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who selected the Spanish-language option on the automated phone system received responses in English spoken with a Spanish accent rather than actual Spanish translations. The issue was discovered by Maya Edwards and her Mexican husband in summer 2024 when they called seeking driver's license information. Edwards posted a TikTok video of the incident that received over 2 million views. The Department of Licensing confirmed the glitch was caused by DOL staff error in configuring the AI-driven technology that provides self-service options in 10 languages. Reporters were able to replicate the voice using Amazon Web Services Polly feature with a voice called 'Lucia' that mimics Castilian Spanish. The agency apologized and stated they fixed the problem, though the exact timeline and scope of affected callers remains unclear. An estimated 38.5% of Spanish-speaking Washingtonians speak limited English, highlighting the accessibility impact.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Accuracy and effectiveness of AI decisions and actions are dependent on group membership, where decisions in AI system design and biased training data lead to unequal outcomes, reduced benefits, increased effort, and alienation of users.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
