Sick of Chatbots? So am I
By Steve Sharp
I'd like to have had a go at someone for time wasting and daft questions, but Chatbots have thick skins and don't care.
According to Forbes 86% of people prefer a human to talk to, and I'm one of them.
At Chancery Lane, we don't have Chatbots, just real live, intelligent humans who know what they're on about.
Officially, a Chatbot is a computer programme that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to understand customer questions and automate responses to them, simulating human conversation.
This week alone I have had to endure a really annoying one at NatWest Bank, then EonNext, Octopus, the AA, and the government, in the shape of the DVLA.
“Imbecile gate keepers driving people mad.” Says Andrew Orlowski in The Telegraph.
The wider debate about AI (artificial intelligence) rolls on, with the growing concern that robots will take over and destroy us and the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates calling for a pause in development, echoing past warnings of the likes of the late Stephen Hawking.
The leading organisation in the development of intelligent machines is called DeepMind. Sounds like something out of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but even its chief scientist Shane Legg, says “If a super-intelligent machine decided to get rid of us I think it would do so pretty efficiently”.
Rather like most forms of modern technology, especially the internet, they can be an amazing resource in say medicine, food production and millions of repetitive tasks, but in the hands of Dr No, Blowfeld and pals did we see a vision of the future?
The idea has been around since the invention of Eric the robot in 1928. A talking, moving mechanical person.
There has been a fascination with them ever since.
The 15 top robot movies of all-time list put The Terminator in first position, but the 1927 film Metropolis second, and The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951 in eleventh.
In the list of The Best 100 Film Robots of all Time R2-D2 from Star Wars comes fourth while his tall pal C-3PO is eleventh.
In the blurb, R2 is described as “stubborn, deceptive, brave and yet, can have his feelings hurt all the same.”
Robots with feelings. The warnings already there in 1977.
Never been much of a fan of sci-fi myself and I used to hide behind the sofa from The Cybermen in Dr Who.
I did like the speaking clock, though technically not a Chatbot!
Perhaps the way forward is to develop machines that are not just intelligent but also have a conscience and high moral standards.
We could lock a few inside The Houses of Parliament and they would work twenty-four seven, making the world a better place for little more than a charge of green energy and a squirt of WD40.
Steve