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NYC Office of Technology and Innovation

NYC - DTPR AI Register

AI-Powered Website Translation for NYC Residents

What it is for

Translation & Language Access
  • The Google Translate widget translates nyc.gov and its subpages into the 10 languages required under Local Law 30 of 2017 and over 100 additional languages, enabling residents with limited English proficiency to access city government information.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Accessibility
  • Ensures New Yorkers with limited English proficiency have equitable access to city government information published on nyc.gov, in compliance with NYC's language access obligations.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Run by
Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.
Shared with
Not stated by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

What it is for

Translation & Language AccessAccessibility

This system automatically translates the text of nyc.gov and its subpages into over 100 languages, including the 10 languages required by New York City's language access law (Local Law 30 of 2017). It is operated by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation to help residents with limited English proficiency access city information. Translation is performed in real time by Google's machine translation service, and the underlying training data is proprietary to Google.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Web content published on nyc.gov and its subpages, written in English. This is publicly available government information — not tied to any individual user.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Processing

Language Models
  • Google Translate uses neural machine translation models to convert English text into over 100 target languages. The underlying model architecture and training data are proprietary to Google.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

What it does

Understanding (Semantic AI)
Autonomous
  • The system reads and understands the meaning of English web content on nyc.gov in order to produce accurate translations. This semantic understanding step underpins the translation output.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Creating (Generative AI)
Autonomous
  • The system generates translated text in the target language — content that did not previously exist in that language. Translation operates fully autonomously in real time without human review of individual outputs.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Translated web content delivered to the user in the language they selected. The translated text is newly generated by the AI model for each request and is not tied to any individual.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Run by

Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI)
  • The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, Web Operations department, deploys and operates the Google Translate widget on nyc.gov to fulfil the city's language access obligations under Local Law 30 of 2017.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Built by

Google
  • Google provides the machine translation service used by this tool at no cost. The underlying model and training data are proprietary to Google. The service is offered as an off-the-shelf product via a widget integration.

NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report — Google Translate

Kept for

Not stated by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

Shared with

Not stated by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

Stored

Not stated by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyNew York City discloses the use of Google Translate on nyc.gov through the NYC Algorithmic Tools Compliance Report, publicly available at the NYC Open Data portal. The training data and model internals are proprietary to Google and are not disclosed. Residents can review the public register entry for this tool at https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/Algorithmic-Tools-Compliance-Report/jaw4-yuem.
  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseWhen a user activates the Google Translate widget on nyc.gov, they are interacting with an automated AI translation system provided by Google. The widget is visually labeled as Google Translate on the page, notifying users of the automated nature of the translation before they engage with it.

Risks and safeguards

  • Societal & cultural harmMachine translation may produce inaccurate or culturally inappropriate renderings of official city information, potentially misleading residents with limited English proficiency on matters of public services, rights, or legal obligations. The city mitigates this by using the tool to supplement — not replace — human-translated content for critical documents, and by mandating professionally translated materials for the 10 required languages under Local Law 30 of 2017.