Hacker News Reader

so this remains the threat of several decades ago (i.e. chatbots are not new) of losing customer services jobs to human pastiches? Is this something new or just a continuation of self-service checkouts and automated payment options?

I still feel like there are many human-contact roles where an AI isn't going to cut it.

View on HN

Chatbots are almost universally subpar; there's been a lot of work at trying to marry them up with natural language processing and other whizz-bang AI techniques, but still, you get down to the nitty gritty that it's a lot of work to design and implement something that's more than just a glorified IVR tree. Very few organizations will have the time and resources to make a decent experience.

I frankly prefer a chat(bot or not) because I have a transcript of what has been discussed. Also, it's kinda fun to guess if it's a bot without offending. This is a real excerpt at the end of a helpful chat with Comcast: guest_ > You seem really nice. I've read about computer programs that can simulate nice people. Are you really a person? Cecilia > yes, i am guest_ > Who won the superbowl? Cecilia > i'm not familiar with it , im sorry

you're already seeing a pushback against "telemedicine", with services promising a real human doctor/pharmacist to help you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com