B7D0403063037C6587258BD3005AB557 Hearing Summary

Kirk Hendrickson, Chief Operating Officer, Wordly AI, introduced himself and his company, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide simultaneous interpretation services in real time, from one language into many. His presentation can be found as Attachment A. He explained that the platform is currently able to translate into 60 different languages using a display in a shared virtual environment or on personal devices via a QR code. He provided a demonstration of the platform and reviewed certain challenges faces by Colorado in particular, including being a diverse state with a large Spanish speaking population, which requires a consistent solution leveraging technology to make legislative hearings language accessible.



He stated that Wordly AI not only provides written simultaneous translation, but also oral simultaneous interpretation, and is being used by many cities, counties, and school districts throughout the country for public meetings.



Mr. Hendrickson answered questions. He said that meeting attendees never have to pay to use the platform since the "host" organization pays for the services. He reviewed the range of costs to use the service, which is based on the number of hours used and the number of languages being translated into. For example, 10 hours of translation to only Spanish would cost $75 per hour while 10 hours of translation into all offered languages would cost $150 per hour. He stated that the more hours used the less expensive the service costs per hour.



He told the board about the three measures to consider when comparing an AI system to an acutal human interpretor: comprehensiveness, accuracy, and fluency. He explained that AI translates every word it encounters while a human interpretor does more summarizing so it is a bit less comprehensive. He said that in terms of accuracy, AI tends to be about the same as a human interpreter, and a human interpreter is generally more fluent when compared to AI.

Mr. Hendrickson answered questions about how Wordly AI continues to grow by adding additional dialects, accents, and colloquialisms. He explained that a host is billed based on how long the platform is actually running during a meeting and not on the number of attendees who are in the meeting using the service.



He stated that other languages aside from English can be translated in other non-English languages. So for example, a statement provided in Spanish during a meeting can simultaneously be translated into Korean and French during the meeting. Transcripts can also be provided for any of the languages used by the platform.



Mr. Hendrickson answered questions about who is liable if there is an incorrect translation or interpretation, and about the difficulties with interpreting when someone speaks with an uncommon accent or speech impediment.