National Weather Service halts automated translation for alerts

The National Weather Service has halted its automated language translation services until further notice, potentially hindering the millions of U.S. residents who speak a language other than English from accessing life-saving information at a time when climate change is exacerbating extreme weather events, experts say. The pause was “due to a contract lapse” with an artificial intelligence firm providing the translation services, according to a message from the agency this month. In October 2023, the NWS announced that its forecasters had been working with the machine learning company Lilt to...