"The Government Accountability Office's analysis - released on Monday as residents in dozens of states dig out from a massive winter storm that swept through much of the eastern half of the country - said AI "could play a key role in expanding the accessibility of weather products," but added that the translation project is hampered by some challenges, including funding issues and widespread adoption."
"According to Census Bureau data that GAO included in the report, approximately 26 million people in the U.S. have a limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English. To better reach these non-English speakers, NWS first began using AI to translate some of its services into other languages in 2021. The weather service has been using AI to translate some of its forecasts, watches and warnings into five languages: Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Samoan."
"These AI-translated products do not apply to the Emergency Alert System or Wireless Emergency Alerts, although the Federal Communications Commission has adopted requirements for wireless carriers to support WEAs in English and 14 other languages. "NWS does not use AI translations to provide Spanish WEA messages because of limitations on the characters that wireless carriers support," the report said, adding that the weather service "collaborated with FEMA and FCC to develop templates for its Spanish WEA messages that avoid using unsupported characters.""
The National Weather Service began using AI in 2021 to translate forecasts, watches, and warnings into Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Samoan. Census Bureau data show about 26 million people in the U.S. have limited English proficiency. About a quarter of weather forecast offices and the National Hurricane Center participated in the translation effort as of December 2025. AI can accelerate and reduce the cost of multilingual dissemination, but the effort faces funding constraints, limited adoption, and technical limits that prevent AI translations from being applied to Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts.
Read at Nextgov.com
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