Mastodawn

Callers to Washington state hotline press 2 for Spanish and get accented AI English instead

https://sopuli.xyz/post/41831754

Callers to Washington state hotline press 2 for Spanish and get accented AI English instead - Sopuli

> 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. AI is putting The Onion out of business, not because The Onion articles can be written by AI, rather AI has just made this kind of satire nearly obsolete. The Onion is forced to retreat into existential screaming into the void humor, which they have done magnificently in the face of an unstoppable foe.

dizzle18 Feb 27

Well…I laughed. I’ll just see myself to hell now.

Oh I LOL’d my friend… I’ll fix you a chair next to mine in hell

supersquirrel Feb 27

“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.”

We are all going there together.

TropicalDingdong Feb 27

Roger, Roger.

towerful Feb 27

What’s your vector, Victor?

Viking_Hippie Feb 27

Over, Oveur

fartographer Feb 27

Do you like watching gladiator movies, Joey?

Viking_Hippie Feb 27

Do you ever hang out in gymnasiums?

KnightontheSun Feb 27

I’m on smoko!

THE CHATS - SMOKO (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

YouTube

Remember_the_tooth Feb 27

So leave me alone!

KnightontheSun Feb 27

“leava me alono!”

supersquirrel Feb 27

towerful @programming.dev English What’s your vector, Victor? Remember_the_tooth @lemmy.world English So leave me alone! KnightontheSun @sh.itjust.works English “leava me alono!”

dhork @lemmy.world English

Roger, Roger. KnightontheSun @sh.itjust.works English

I’m on smoko!

Oh dear I’m sorry I have a serious commenting problem!

manniesalado Feb 28

Many years ago I was in Latin America with two other English speakers, one who spoke Spanish well, and the third kept asking for translations…"Steve, Steve, how do I say “box”? Boxo. “Steve, Steve, how do I say “gas cap”? Capo. That went on for a while.

I think you can hear an example here: spokanepublicradio.org/…/couple-asks-wa-dol-for-s…

Couple asks WA DOL for Spanish speaker and gets a recording in accented English instead

Last summer, Maya Edwards and her husband called the Washington State Department of Licensing hoping to speak with someone in Spanish. They got someone speaking English with a Spanish accent instead.

Spokane Public Radio

bold_omi Feb 27

Thanks for the link.

turboSnail Feb 27

🤣 priceless!

You know there are vibe coders who don’t even try to run the code before uploading it. Apparently, those very same people make phone services too. Just do everything with AI, and ship it without checking anything at all. Full steam ahead, never look back.

And they get paid the same amount as normal developers. And probably get paid to fix all the mistakes they make.

That doesn’t sound like an AI voice in that it used generative AI. It sounds like someone just fed the English into a Hispanic voice on a regular text to speech engine. I could be wrong though.

Or maybe somebody wrote an AI prompt that said “hey make this voice file sound Spanish”.

🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞Feb 27

I couldn’t see anything there (but it sounds like some could) - anyone else has problems, try this one - it’s in the latter half: www.tiktok.com/…/7608347117161041183

Ah, man… I know it’s a screwup and it’s just hilarious.

TikTok - Make Your Day

QuantumSparkles Feb 27

PLEASE PRESS UNO

tigeruppercut Feb 28

Cue Chris Farley translating “el niño”

youtu.be/H0-pHnykC9s

Chris Farley, El Nino

Tis the season? ;) Enjoy!(This video is not my property and no ownership is implied.)

YouTube

TheAsianDonKnots Feb 27

“Hey fool, we heard you like, want a license to drive and shit. Press uno if you want to flip this bitch around, hahahaha just kidding just kidding calm down. Press numero two of you want to drive. Press numero three if you’re a cabrona and have to reschedule a failed test, or press numero four if you like, wanna talk about your feeling or some shit. If you want to repeat these options press that hash homie, and thank you for calling the Washington state Department of Pendejos that get to decide that yours truly has to ride a fucking bike everywhere… in the rain. whistles good bye”

panda_abyss Feb 27

This is hilarious, but in a I can’t believe how fucking absurd and stupid way.

They didn’t even bother QAing the pre recorded messages by listening once.

supersquirrel Feb 27

I feel terrible having done this to Picard…

ZILtoid1991 Feb 27

Or some racist fucker was responsible for this.

panda_abyss Feb 28

It was almost definitely both.

Lemmy Sparkling Lemonade Feb 27

Always grimly funny when you can basically suss out the lazy-ass prompt: “Now do the same message, but Spanish.”

Cris_Citrus Feb 28

The agency has since apologized and says it’s trying to fix the problem.

Something about “says it’s trying to fix the problem” is really funny to me 😭

Yeah, as if that kind of thing could be done by accident. Or maybe it can IDK.

slingstone Feb 28

It’s nice to know that AI can still give us that good old human touch in the form of blatant racism.

Somebody go ahead and shoot me, please. I want off this mother loving ride.

Lemmy Sparkling Lemonade Feb 28

So all aboard for the American tour
And maybe you’ll make it to the top
And mind how you go, and I can tell you, 'cause I know
You may find it hard to get off

My friends got a funnier version of this. The local elementary school has a service that translates automated phone messages for parents into any language.

She’s bilingual, but her mother only speaks Russian and shes been teaching the kids Russian. So she gets each message, 2x, once in english, and once in Russian. But, whenever the system hits a loan word, or word that is the same in both languages, (superintendent was the word it hit when I was driving with her thw other day)

it gets derailed, and finishes in english with a really over the top Russian accent.

Not the same Russian voice mind you, it switched from a woman speeking fairly fast to a man speaking english slowly and angrily, with a Russian accent, like it was trained off of cold war movie 'Soviets or something.

JackbyDev Feb 28

That’s so fucking weird! I wish we could hear a recording. That’s amazing.

Sam_Bass Feb 28

Church Marin, perhaps?

Mulligrubs Feb 28

“trying to fix the problem”

Oh dear God that is frankly horrifying.

Ford is going to get sunk, isn’t it? “we’re trying to fix it” you motherfuckers

My kids’ elementary school had the opposite sort of message, the principal saying, in a flat slightly southern US accent - si quieres Espanol oprima el numero dos, like such an accent I am not sure anyone who spoke only Spanish would know what she was saying.

See

Kee-yer-is

Ess pan ohl

Oh pree muh

Ell

Noo mur oh

Dowhs.

monotremata Feb 28

Many years ago when t-mobile first debuted their “visual voicemail” that did automated transcription, my dad brought me his phone and wanted to know what the hell has happened with one of his messages. It said something like “Parrot vegan spaniel primo wavy.” I showed him that he could still press a button to listen to the actual message, and it was from Walgreens; the computer had been trying to transcribe the Spanish voice saying “para diga en Espanol, oprima nueve.”

Blackmist Feb 28

Was it Peggy Hill?

pastermil Feb 28

Damn that is comically absurd

Before long, we wouldn’t need The Onion anymore with all this nonsense!

SippyCup Feb 28

“para Espanol, oprima El Numero dos”

Beep

“Aye Chihuahua! You wanna tortilla? I got some tequila! Come on hombre! How you doin ehhh? Orale senior I think you gotta problem yeah?”

“… ¿Que carajo es esta mirrda?”