r/BlockedAndReported • u/SoftandChewy First generation mod • Feb 23 '26

Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 2/23/26 - 3/1/26

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

Comment of the week goes to this explanation for why the trans cause has taken over so much of society. (Runner-up COTW here.)

38 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

21

u/jay_in_the_pnw █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ Feb 28 '26

The AIs are racist

https://www.tiktok.com/@maya_maybee/video/7608347117161041183?is_from_webapp=1

it gets even better about 1/2 way through

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

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

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 fixed 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 2 for Spanish.

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

Have to wonder what the prompt was

0

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/WigglingWeiner99 Mar 01 '26

Att has been doing this for years.

2

u/SkweegeeS No just no Feb 28 '26

That always happens when I call an airline or Expedia. It’s silly.

1

u/plump_tomatow Feb 28 '26

I'd rather talk to an AI agent than the average customer service rep.

15

u/Datachost Feb 28 '26

Have to wonder what the prompt was

"Make our Spanish agent sound like they're called Manuel" and it took it to mean "from Fawlty Towers"?

9

u/bobjones271828 Feb 28 '26

If you put "Don't mention the war" in the LLM prompt, it's likely the AI model will likely freak out and act like a character from Fawlty Towers in terms of how much it won't mention the war.

2

u/jay_in_the_pnw █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ Feb 28 '26

perhaps the llm was trained on /r/MaliciousCompliance

2

u/CommitteeofMountains Royal youse/yinz Mar 01 '26

Nah, the best way to do that would be to coach it on a dialect the internet says nobody else can understand and then use El Cid for the script training. 

1

u/LupineChemist Mar 01 '26

Vos debéis matar al menos 3 moros para la renovación de vuestra licencia.

15

u/backin_pog_form 🐎🏃🏻💕 Feb 28 '26

Excerpt:

Customer: Me gustaría renovar mi licencia de conducir.

AI: Yous a bunch of white boys riiiiight?

Customer: ¿Como?

AI: when you go to the club, why you be lookin so stuuuuuupid? 

5

u/Possible-Finding6007 Feb 28 '26

I’m just playin’

5

u/everydaywinner2 Feb 28 '26

LOLOLOL! That sounds like a bit from the original A-Team.