San Jose mayor says AI driving Spanish speakers’ participation

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan says Spanish-speaking participation at city meetings has increased 300% through the use of artificial intelligence translation software. But critics are finding errors in the tool — and question if it’s really driving the increase.

Mahan made the declaration in Miami, Florida Thursday during a discussion about AI in government at the Knight Foundation’s annual Knight Media Forum. He compared YouTube view counts of the San Jose City Council’s first Spanish meeting broadcast last May with 64 views and a later one last August with 307 views, when the city started using the generative AI tool Wordly for translation. The software made simultaneous English and Spanish language broadcasts available for the first time in the Bay Area’s largest city, after issues providing interpreters at times forced Spanish speakers to watch meetings from a separate room.

Mahan said Wordly has removed the city’s dependence on a “very expensive and cumbersome system” of “human beings” at great taxpayer expense.

“People can now access any public meeting, pick the right channel for their language — and two-way communication — with real-time translation that’s incredibly accurate,” Mahan said at the forum.

City Clerk Toni Taber told San José Spotlight an expanded time frame suggests a larger increase of about 876% when comparing view counts of the first Spanish broadcast last May with a more recent one in September.

Though viewership isn’t consistent on YouTube. The council’s English and Spanish broadcasts are all archived on YouTube, where view counts can depend on what topics are covered at a particular meeting. The archived Spanish broadcast of a different council meeting last September had only 63 views as of Thursday afternoon. View counts can also grow in the days after a meeting.

Mahan’s remarks are raising eyebrows. Lucila Ortiz, political director at the community group Working Partnerships USA, said Wordly has made language errors during council discussions when scores of Latino residents have showed up to participate. She cites a Feb. 4 council discussion of 988, a national hotline people in mental health crises can call for help.

“The interpretation and script on the screen kept saying ‘908.’ If anyone was out there reading the script they would definitely be reading — and possibly dialing — the wrong number,” Ortiz told San José Spotlight.

Ortiz also said when community activists with the group known as LUNA identified themselves at the same meeting, Wordly kept interpreting the organization’s name literally, into the word “moon.” The group’s name stands for Latinos United for a New America.

“I don’t think we should get rid of it, but context can be lost when we use AI,” Ortiz said. “This shouldn’t be a replacement for human interpreters who can catch that context.”

Taber said human interpreters are brought into meetings when it’s determined they’re needed.

“I’m the one that hires them and brings them in,” Taber told San José Spotlight. “The Rules committee may direct me to bring them in, city staff may ask me to if they think it’s needed. I’ll also ask city staff if there is an item they think will have a need for in-person interpreters. We are working with our tech people to have the Wordly AI broadcast over interpreter headsets, so that may reduce the need for in-person interpreters further.”

Mahan’s spokesperson Tasha Dean said consistent improvement is the nature of generative AI.

“The technology gets better each and every time we use it,” Dean told San José Spotlight. “While both human and AI translators can make mistakes, this technology can be used at any and all public meetings regardless of scale, something that would be cost-prohibitive for the city using solely human translators. This means more people can access more information more of the time — which is a win for civic engagement and brings diverse voices to the table.”
Ortiz agrees technology such as Wordly can be useful, but stops short of crediting it for increased participation from Spanish-speaking residents.

“I definitely have seen a lot more civic engagement and interest. I definitely think there’s a correlation, but would not jump to say it’s a causation,” Ortiz said. “There have been some items that recently went before the city council that are of high interest to the Spanish speaking community. For example, there were issues around fast-food workers and a resolution of immigrant rights as a response to (President Donald Trump’s) administration.”

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.