zlacker

>>isp+(OP)
I never understand people who engage with chat bots as customer service.

I find them deeply upsetting, not one step above the phone robot on Vodafone support: "press 1 for internet problems" ... "press 2 to be transferred to a human representative". Only problem is going through like 7 steps until I can reach that human, then waiting some 30 minutes until the line is free.

But it's the only approach that gets anything done. Talking to a human.

Robots a a cruel joke on customers.

>>Michae+kd
One of the car dealers near me purchased a chatbot for their site, which I briefly interacted with the other day out of curiosity. Unlike the one in the article, this one denied being a robot, eventually hanging up on me when I pressed. For a little bit, I found that as long as I was asking it real questions, it would play along.

I found the parent company's site, and was greeted by the same local persona ("but in a different building" than my dealer) offering to tell me about the services they provide.

I don't have a huge problem with useful chatbots (which these weren't), but I do have a problem with them outright lying about their nature. I can vote with my dollars on companies that still employ human support, but I think we're in trouble if we don't have to identify AI being used.