Sunnyvale residents who don’t speak English have a new way to engage and participate in city meetings.

The city is piloting an artificial intelligence-based translation service upon request for public meetings through Wordly. The technology offers live translation in more than 50 languages. Using AI is more cost effective and efficient than human translators, according to city officials.

“We have such diversity from cultures as well as language that trying to make sure we can overcome those barriers … is a great step forward in showing what cities can do to include residents who in the past have been left out,” Mayor Larry Klein told San José Spotlight.

On its website, Wordly advertises its work with a handful of other cities, such as Gilroy. Residents attending a Gilroy government meeting in person can scan a QR code to access Wordly translations in more than 30 languages.

Source: San José Spotlight, www.sanjosespotlight.com
Read full article: https://sanjosespotlight.com/sunnyvale-taps-ai-to-translate-public-meetings/