EASTON, Pa. — The artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant "Ask the Bugler" on Easton's city website has expanded its understanding of language, and now will be able to engage more effectively with Spanish speakers.
City Administrator Luis Campos, joined by Mayor Sal Panto Jr., Councilman Frank Pintabone, and Citibot CEO Bratton Riley, announced Wednesday that Ask the Bugler has gotten a “significant upgrade.”
It will expand its two-way communication to 75 languages and offering more responsive and accurate answers, thanks go advanced generative AI.
“Individuals can easily ask questions in Spanish and receive a Spanish language response. This is an updated feature from the English-only service."Easton City Administrator Luis Campos
Using generative AI, the chatbot now is more capable of analyzing inquiries and providing “precise, contextually relevant information,” Campos said.
With Easton's Hispanic population hovering around 30%, city officials hope the upgrade will help residents with accessing city services and information.
“The city’s Bugler Bot will feature a welcome message in both English and Spanish," Campos said.
"Individuals can easily ask questions in Spanish and receive a Spanish language response. This is an updated feature from the English-only service."
'Breaking down communications barriers'
With the use of Amazon Translate, Ask the Bugler now can detect a resident’s preferred language and engage with that individual in a more direct and comprehensible way.
“Cities like Easton are at the forefront of breaking down communication barriers and improving access to public services.”Citibot
“At Citibot, we recognize the importance of providing residents with accessible and comfortable ways to engage with their local government, regardless of language or cultural barriers,” Riley said.
“Cities like Easton are at the forefront of breaking down communication barriers and improving access to public services.”
The bot has been a part of the Easton website for about three years, Riley and Campos said.
“We’re going to be continuing to push this feature to our residents,” Campos said. “We’re certainly going to promote this at the Hispanic Resource Day as another alternative to communicating with the city" office.
Campos said the city has an agreement with Citibot that sets the price for "Ask the Bugler" at $10,000 per year.
City officials said the bot already handles hundreds of queries per day, with the expectation that it soon will increase into the thousands.
"Ask the Bugler" also will alleviate the burden of calls to city officials, Campos said, saving administrators time and money.
“We have immigrants who would want to open up a business and they don't know how to do it," Panto said. "So they go to the website.
"And they can't read it, so they just type in to Ask the Bugler, ‘What do I do? How do I start a business in Easton?’ and are automatically put in an area of the website that talks about that and building permits, business permits, business licenses, etc."
'The benefit of society'
Engaging in some light testing, Ask the Bugler was able to effectively answer numerous questions in English and Spanish, providing relevant links on the Easton website. When asked a question in Spanish, it was able to produce the answer relatively quickly, and offer the option to read that response.
Riley said the tool has already proven itself popular, with 3,454 residents — more than 10% of the city’s population — using it already. And city officials expect that number to increase.
Citibot says Ask the Bugler is built on “responsible AI principles,” which ensure it operates “ethically and securely.”
It also stressed its support for the responsible use of AI as a “proud member of the GovAI Coalition.”
The GovAI Coalition was established in November, aiming to “give local government a voice in shaping the future of AI and ensure that AI development is geared toward the benefit of society.”
More than 1,000 members and 350 local, state, and federal agencies are part of the group, which says it has a commitment to “Using AI for social good, ensuring ethical, non-discriminatory, and responsible AI governance, promoting vendor accountability, improving government services, and fostering cross-agency collaboration and knowledge sharing.”
Ask the Bugler also will provide advanced reporting and analytics to city staff in order to help optimize service and improve the website, Citbot states.
Will only get better
Riley said as the chatbot is used more and more, Citibot will gather more data that can be used to make the experience more “equitably considerate of the diversity of our resident population, and to provide these customer service experiences in these different languages.”
“Language access is a key issue for the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs. Language access equals access to services."Executive Director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs Olga Negro
Riley confirmed the bot’s data pool is limited to publicly available information available via Easton’s website, which means it will not seek out answers from other sources and potentially provide an incorrect response from an outdated or otherwise incorrect source.
Wednesday’s announcement yielded praise from state officials who commended the city on expanding access to information for all residents, regardless of their language.
“Language access is a key issue for the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs,” Executive Director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs Olga Negro said.
“Language access equals access to services. If we are going to be inclusive and really want to reach out to all Pennsylvanians, access in the residents’ language is a must.”
