For several months, the Washington state Department of Licensing’s automated service encountered an unusual glitch. Callers requesting information in Spanish heard an AI voice speaking English with a pronounced Spanish accent.

Resident Maya Edwards discovered this issue when her bilingual Mexican husband sought information about his driver’s license. To avoid lengthy wait times for English assistance, he selected the Spanish-language option. Instead, the bizarre experience resembled a scene from “Parks and Recreation,” a mockumentary comedy about local government inefficiencies.

Edwards found humor in the situation, yet she highlighted the accessibility challenges it posed for non-English speakers relying on such services. When she called again, the error persisted. Her TikTok video about the incident garnered about 2 million views.

On Friday, the Washington Department of Licensing acknowledged the problem. It attributed the glitch to the staff and confirmed the issue was fixed. The service includes ten languages and operates on AI technology. The agency apologized for any inconvenience and recognized that expanding services sometimes uncovers technical issues.

Whether other languages faced similar issues remains uncertain. AP tested the phone service in various languages but did not encounter additional accent problems. The voice service still operated Thursday morning after an English message noted some translation services were malfunctioning.

An AP journalist experienced the accented English voice with Spanish numbers, saying, “Your estimated wait time is less than ‘tres’ minutes.”

The platform uses Amazon technology. The accent matched an Amazon Web Services feature called Polly, choosing the “Lucia” voice that mimics Castilian Spanish. Amazon has not commented.

Associated Press journalist Aaron Kessler contributed to the story.