Latest news with #Darcie
Newsweek
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Tears at Moment Dachshund Owner Realizes That Dogs 'Have Friends Too'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A brief but heartfelt moment between two miniature dachshunds has warmed the hearts of viewers on TikTok, after one pet owner shared footage of her dog sprinting to greet her canine friend at a train station—reminding viewers that dogs, too, can form genuine friendships. The now-viral video, posted on July 13 under @darcie_theminidaschund, shows the female dachshund named Darcie eagerly rushing toward a ticket barrier to reunite with another dachshund arriving on a lead with her own owner. The moment has sparked widespread affection on the platform, drawing more than 445,000 likes and over 2.1 million views to date. Darcie and her owner are based in Staffordshire, in the north of England. @darcie_theminidaschund She has friends that she gets excited to see too🥹 ♬ lovers' carvings - Bibio Dachshunds are known for forming particularly strong bonds with members of their own breed. Often drawn to each other by shared body language, energy levels, and temperament, they tend to become fast companions with fellow dachshunds. Shot from behind, the short clip captures Darcie straining at her leash as she recognizes her canine friend approaching. Her energy builds as the two dogs lock eyes, pulling toward each other across the barrier until they finally meet nose-to-nose, tails wagging. The video's caption—"she has friends that she gets excited to see too"—paired with an overlaid text reading, "I'm crying that dogs have friends too," resonated with viewers who flooded the comments to share their emotional reactions and stories of their own pets' bonds. "She's so excited," one viewer commented, while another added: "I love how she runs." "I love when they sniff each other's noses so cute," a third viewer said. "My dog has a girlfriend and it's the cutest thing ever," another added. "My dog has like three girlfriends," another said in agreement. "This is how my dog gets with my neighbor dog," a different viewer shared. "The fact that neither of them peed is astonishing," another said. "That is the cutest thing I have ever seen," another said. "My dog loves our neighbors and childhood friends' dog, we used to say they're boyfriend and girlfriend," another added. "Little besties," another said. "Girlhood in all forms," another viewer summed up. Newsweek reached out to @darcie_theminidaschund for more information via email. Stock image: A miniature dachshund runs across grass while on lead and in front of another dachshund. Stock image: A miniature dachshund runs across grass while on lead and in front of another dachshund. Getty Images Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Council's AI call assistant has 'room to improve' after struggling to understand local Derbyshire dialect
It is designed to allow residents to access information at any time of the day or night, without waiting in a long phone queue. But people living in Derby have been left bewildered after the council's new digital AI assistant struggled to understand their local dialect. Common words used in the county such as 'mardy' and 'duck' prompted an automated response asking for users to repeat the question. The Labour-run council acknowledged its digital AI assistant called Darcie has room to improve. Introduced in 2023 to answer phones and website queries, Darcie is the the public's first contact if they need help when calling Derby City Council or visiting its website. Following an upgrade the council said Darcie can now understand more complex questions and hold more natural conversations, 'offering a smoother and more human-like experience when answering queries'. It said it continues to improve over time and will learn every time the digital helper is asked a question. Both web and phone versions of Darcie have been upgraded to support nine of the most widely spoken languages in Derby, after English based on Council data - Arabic, Czech, Pashto, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Slovak, Somali, and Urdu. But regional words appear to have been missed. BBC Radio Derby reporter Becky Measures, who has a strong Derbyshire accent, was misunderstood by Darcie on a number of occasions when she called to test it live on air. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) also asked Darcie online: 'How do I pay council tax duck?' But Darcie responded: 'the message was blocked by our content filter' and asked for the question to be rephrased. At a council cabinet meeting on Wednesday, city councillor Hardyal Dhindsa alluded to phrases that Darcie was struggling to pick up such as 'mardy' (moaning) and 'duck' (dear/love). Mr Dhindsa said the council was continuing efforts to 'teach Darcie to understand Derby phrases to further enhance its local understanding'. The council said it had made improvements to Darcie so it could answer more complicated questions. The upgraded version of Darcie has 'demonstrated its effectiveness by successfully answering 58% of calls,' said Mr Dhindsa. During the council meeting Mr Dhindsa said Darcie was becoming 'much more human' and would improve further so it could respond better to people's enquiries and their turns of phrase. 'It still can be improved,' said Mr Dhindsa. 'As the Radio Derby reporter said, it didn't understand Derbyshire dialect so well. Well, it will learn to do that. Our expert IT people will work on doing that. 'It's learning every time it has an experience and is much more human. 'The council remains committed to providing comprehensive support, continuing to offer all other channels such as face-to-face interactions, human telephone support, and other accessible channels if Darcie cannot help or if the situation is inappropriate for digital assistance.' Leader of the city council, Councillor Nadine Peatfield, said she was impressed it could learn the local dialect. 'I love that. So instead of it trying to translate something about ducks, it is actually recognising it's a turn of phrase. Brilliant. The Derby way.' The council has already saved £200,000 by losing four full-time equivalent agency jobs due to artificial intelligence (AI). Derby City Council said agency workers in the customer management department were being reduced. It aims to nearly £4m of savings through AI in 2024-25. But opposition councillors have raised concerns about more possible future job losses due to AI. Available 24/7 via phone and the Council website, the council says Darcie ensures that residents can access information and support at any time, including evenings, weekends, and public holidays and without having to wait in a call queue. Residents can still choose to speak to a human advisor during normal office hours for more complex needs. It was introduced alongside another AI assistant called Ali, who manages housing enquiries for Derby Homes. The council said the two AI assistants have handled over 2 million enquiries since launch, resolving 44% of cases without the need for staff input, allowing frontline teams to focus on customers who need more than a simple response. Since the upgrade was launched on 20 May, the Council has seen an 84% reduction in calls to the switchboard during peak times, with 57% of customer queries now being responded to directly by Darcie and the remainder are dealt with by a human advisor). But resident Dave Jowitt said: 'The system is useless, had to phone in to sort something out about council tax and it took 5 minutes to actually talk to a real person the AI just kept going round in circles.' Last year, the council was criticised for spending £30,000 on two robotic vacuum cleaners. Opposition councillors say they feared the move by Labour-run Derby City Council was the 'next step towards phasing out physical staff for automation' as it tries to claw back a predicted £9.6 million overspend. The council has said the robotic cleaners will 'increase the capacity of existing cleaning staff and extend the lifespan of the carpet' at its Council House headquarters in the city. It has spent £33,000 on the two machines, which includes a three-year servicing agreement. The council insisted they would not lead to job losses.
BBC News
11-07-2025
- BBC News
Derby City Council's AI assistant fails to understand local dialect
A council has acknowledged its digital AI assistant has room to improve after it struggled to understand the Derbyshire Radio Derby called the authority's AI helper, Darcie - who is the public's first contact for help when calling Derby City Council or visiting its website - after it received an station's breakfast show presenter, Becky Measures, who has a strong Derbyshire accent, was misunderstood by Darcie on a number of a council cabinet meeting on Wednesday, city councillor Hardyal Dhindsa alluded to phrases that Darcie was struggling to pick up such as "mardy" (moaning) and "duck" (dear/love). In a statement, Dhindsa said the council was continuing efforts to "teach Darcie to understand Derby phrases to further enhance its local understanding." The council said it had made improvements to Darcie so it can answer more complicated questions. The upgraded version of Darcie has "demonstrated its effectiveness by successfully answering 58% of calls," said Mr the council meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said Dhindsa mentioned Darcie was becoming "much more human" and will improve further so it can respond better to people's inquiries and their turns of phrase. "It still can be improved," said Dhindsa."As the Radio Derby reporter said, it didn't understand Derbyshire dialect so well. Well, it will learn to do that. Our expert IT people will work on doing that."It's learning every time it has an experience and is much more human."The council remains committed to providing comprehensive support, continuing to offer all other channels such as face-to-face interactions, human telephone support, and other accessible channels if Darcie cannot help or if the situation is inappropriate for digital assistance."Mr Dhindsa said Derby City Council is the "first in the country to implement such technology" and can now speak Arabic, Czech, Pashto, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Slovak, Somali, and Urdu as part of the upgrade. Analysis By Kacper Misiarz, BBC Radio DerbyThe first thing you notice when using the Polish version of Darcie is that, while it's a near word-for-word translation of the English version, it sounds slower and less enthusiastic — if that's something you can say about an AI handled my query about bin collection at the BBC Derby office in St Helen's Street well at first, quickly pointing me to the online bin day lookup tool. But when I said I had no internet access, it ignored that and repeated the same suggestion. After rephrasing and providing my postcode, Darcie informed me they were experiencing high call volumes and couldn't help further. Despite multiple attempts, I never got the answer I was looking Polish Darcie isn't flawless, but it's on par with the original. It works well for simple queries — if you have internet access. For more complex issues, it can transfer you to a to Derby City Council for making Darcie more inclusive. Many larger organisations still don't offer voice assistant support in Polish.
