San Jose police chief uses AI to speak Spanish

SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph released a video on Tuesday using artificial intelligence to translate and deliver his message in Spanish, aiming to build trust within the city's immigrant community.

The video features Joseph speaking in Spanish with the help of AI technology that converts his voice into a language he does not speak fluently. 

The message is part of a broader effort to reach San Jose’s diverse communities in the languages they speak at home.

"I believe we have community members who are afraid to report crimes because of concerns over immigration enforcement," Joseph said in a press release.

He emphasized that the San Jose Police Department will not inquire about immigration status.

"I’m willing to use any tool available, including AI, to get the message out to our community that you can call San Jose police for help," he said.

According to the release, Joseph wanted the message to come directly from him.

Miguel Ramos, shopping at a plaza in East San Jose, viewed the message in Spanish and found it was easy to understand. Ramos also felt it was good the message came directly from Joseph because "he is higher up and has more control over his police officers," Ramos said.  Ramos felt it gave the message more authority and believability. 

Professor Hany Farid, a computer science professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in digital forensics, said: "There are very good reasons why a politician or in this case, a police chief, would want to speak in a language that maybe his or her constituents don’t speak. A perfectly reasonable thing to do," Professor Farid said.

Professor Farid said the key elements that differentiate legitimate uses of AI and potential fraudulent uses are "consent" and "disclosure." In the case of the SJPD video Professor Farid said clearly it meets the consent test but he said:  "I think the disclosure here was not as good as it could have been," Farid said. "So if you look at the Spanish-speaking video at the very onset of the video it says ‘the voice is AI generated’ but then throughout the video you don’t see that.  And I think that should have been a label that stuck throughout the entire video," Farid said. 

Professor Farid pointed out that when videos are edited, and posted on social media, it might not be clear AI was being used without seeing the initial disclosure. 

In the AI-translated video, he says, "The San José Police Department does not participate in immigration enforcement. Our mission is public safety for everyone."

Why SJPD is turning to AI

What they're saying:

During a press conference, Joseph explained why he thought the message coming from him versus another Spanish speaker was more beneficial. 

"I am the chief of police, so I am really the person that represents the department," he said. "While others can speak Spanish, we are in such a diverse community that I can't speak every language that someone in this very rich, diverse community speaks, but we are working on other languages as well."

The police chief thinks "the possibilities are endless" regarding using AI to speak Spanish for future messages like major investigations.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan praised the department for using technology to break down language barriers in a compassionate way.

"This is exactly the kind of innovation we should be leading with," Mahan said.

The department said it plans to use AI to deliver future messages in other languages and ask the community to share the video to help spread the word.