Last week I was working on a technical problem for a client. Someone on my team filed a support ticket with one of the software companies we’re working with. The company wrote back with a solution. Fantastic! The problem was really annoying, so I was happy to see that there was a workaround. All we needed to do was change a setting.
I looked up the setting, but couldn’t find it. I sent screenshots to the client. Could they find the setting with their admin login?
They couldn’t find it either.
My colleague wrote back to the software company. They responded that the “solution” was an AI generated response, and was incorrect.
What the actual fuck.
At least four people’s time wasted, because an AI made up some words that resembled a technical solution.
And this type of thing is happening all over the tech world. Companies are cutting costs by reducing support staff, replacing them with AI. But the end result is degraded service for the customer, and extra work for the remaining support staff sorting out the bullshit AI responses.
AI is capable of generating “words in a likely order”, as my wife puts it. But the AI doesn’t know or care if the words are true, and apparently neither do the companies deploying the AI tools.
What a fucking scam.
Anonymous
Couldnât agree more
Anonymous
Yikes!
Kuze
Truer words have never been spoken. The singularity will always have to fight our ability to comment!
Anonymous
There was a case not long ago where an Air Canada chatbot gave wrong pricing information, and the user sued successfully for damages.
Maybe in your case a refund for paid support?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/air-canada-chatbot-lawsuit
Anonymous
Definitely share your sense of indignation at this idiocy. But to find a silver lining, maybe there’s a good sci-fi premise somewhere in here for you?