TechTakes

1989 readers

63 users here now

Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

dgerard@awful.systems

Verizon’s new AI chatbot — customer disservice (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 15 hours ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

video version

top 12 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] HedyL@awful.systems 3 points 48 minutes ago (1 children)

Just guessing, but the reported "90% accuracy" are probably related to questions that could be easily answered from an FAQ list. The rest is probably at least in part about issues where the company itself f*cked up in some way... Nothing wrong with answering from an FAQ in theory, but if all the other people get nicely worded BS answers (for which the company couldn't be held accountable), that is a nightmare from every customer's point of view.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 2 points 30 minutes ago

imma gonna prompt inject me a new iPad

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 17 points 15 hours ago

If a human customer service rep [added charges without telling people and lied to them], it’d just be fraud. But being able to blame the computer, that’s the use case for AI!

Potential hot take: In situations where the company attempts to diffuse responsbility, the CEO should take the blame automatically.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 5 points 14 hours ago

Yuck 🤢. I don't want this.

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 0 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Much beloved US phone company Verizon

Bullshit.

[–] diz@awful.systems 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It's called sarcasm.

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub -2 points 9 hours ago

Maybe. Or it could be corporate delusion.

[+] Delta_V@lemmy.world -9 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

Sounds like an improvement over trying to communicate past a language barrier and accents so thick that the actively-hostile human CSR is neigh unintelligible.

Verizon customer service has been terrible for many years, and somehow their business to business service is even worse than residential.

[–] pikesley@mastodon.me.uk 2 points 13 minutes ago

@Delta_V @dgerard "neigh" o_O

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 1 points 28 minutes ago

Looking through your chudposting, this may not be the discussion group for you.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 11 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Tech support workers who may or may not speak English as a second language or with a strong accent can sometimes be of actual help and sometimes not, much like people with possibly more familiar accents can. A call center AI has never been anywhere close to solving a problem I've had.

You're no less fucked but instead of a human being getting underpaid for the trouble, a shitty tech corporation is overpaid.

[–] HedyL@awful.systems 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 14 minutes ago)

At the very least, actual humans have an incentive not to BS you too much, because otherwise they might be held accountable. This might also be the reason why call center support workers sound less than helpful sometimes - they are unable to help you (for various technical or corporate reasons) and feel uneasy about this. A bot is probably going to tell you whatever you want to hear while sounding super polite all the time. If all of it turns out to be wrong... well, then this is your problem to deal with.