Entrepreneurs: Chatbots
by Miki Saxon
I’m not a fan of a lot of AI, especially chatbots.
Most have speech patterns similar to human speech, lousy diction and rapid speech, which leaves most people with poor hearing our in the cold
And I find them relatively dumb.
Most of us have had run-ins with unhelpful customer service chatbots; the ones that are unable to respond to any but the most mundane quarries — which is why I usually just start by saying ‘representative’ until I get to a human.
I have no understanding why it is better to talk to your TV, rather than use the remote.
The first thing many of my friends and family do on a new iPhone is turn off Siri,
I know that many people love them, which is fine with me; whatever floats your boat.
That said, I learned about one that has more on its mind than ordering pizza.
An artificial-intelligence lawyer chatbot has successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets across London and New York for free, showing that chatbots can actually be useful.
That’s useful. And free.
Still more interesting is the fact that its creator is a 19 year old, with a history of using his skills creating tools for nonprofits, since he was 13.
I may be a digital dinosaur, but I’m not to old to learn and change.
Hopefully, this kind of usefulness is the future of bots.
And who knows. Perhaps by the time I need assistance the young developers will take into account the millions of hearing-challenged people who will be their biggest market, especially in healthcare and daily living.
Flickr image credit: Chris Yarzab
