So called “AI” is taking over the world. AI, or artificial intelligence, to a layman, does not mean the ability to have a computer take over the world RE: The Matrix. AI in layman’s terms is the ability to process natural language and perform some sort of action, parse the results, and in some cases have the ability to parse a data set into something simpler and easier to understand. This is, in a nutshell, what ChatGPT is all about. It’s a glorified search engine for the internet, that happens to have access to certain information that something like Google would not. Natural language abilities in text to speech and speech to text have improved in the years, and this is Alexa. Sure, you can automate your house by saying out loud “Alexa, turn on the lights,” but why? To most people, the inexpensive wifi plugs and wifi bulbs are actually complicated and don’t work well with 5GHz WiFi to keep costs down, which then in turn adds problems to their functionality.
So why does every website now have some sort of AI chatbot in the lower righthand corner to ask questions about a product or service, and get support?
The worst offender of this is Adobe. You want to contact support? Not only do you have to deal with an AI wall to get AT a person, if you have to pay to keep your account current so you even CAN cancel your account, if you signed a contract with them for a term of service, they’ll request a mandatory cancellation fee.
The clincher though, with EVERY major retailer is, if you want support from an agent or “customer service representative” you almost always have to go through an automated AI chatbot. On web forums, there’s almost always an FAQ for the “newbies” to read to filter out unnecessary work weeding out repeat and common questions. Seems like though, every damn time you need a human being to get service. So why even bother with your AI chatbot?
First of all, real AI would have the ability to help you without a human, meaning nobody is affected by AI’s so called human replacing abilities to not even be able to handle a simple request like cancelling a service, and second, if every damn manager of some sort of web resource wants to assume people always need the same information and can’t get it from anything but an AI chatbot offering the answers to those common questions, I’d say you have a problem with your user experience. Enough said.