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by mauriciob 2967 days ago
People are prejudiced against talking to bots because of how bad they are currently. I despise calling services that have voice recognition, often times it's easier to have an options menu.

If they can get a way of saying "I'm a bot" without people hanging up the calls, I'm all for it -- otherwise, "I'm calling for a client" or similar is the best for everyone involved (assuming everything works).

Businesses also need to have a way to report problems to Google, like if they are getting spammed by Duplex or want to opt out.

2 comments

> People are prejudiced against talking to bots because of how bad they are currently

I'm prejudiced against talking to bots because they're bots. They don't have empathy, whereas from voice interaction I expect a human I can relate to and desire to help and be courteous with. It's a fundamentally different type of interaction and I will be annoyed anytime that one is confused for the other.

Well, bad news: all the (presumed) humans I've talked to on any scripted call are worse than bots: they do have empathy, but the script forbids them to use it. An out-and-out bot is free from this prison, at the very least.
How about something like "I'm an automated agent calling for a client" - correct, not misleading, but using terminology which isn't likely to be immediately disconnected _right now_.

Of course, if they screw it up, they'll burn that terminology too.

Yeah, something like "Hello, I'm Rogers' Assistant..." to fit current Google naming conventions would probably be fine.