| I was just re-watching "Westworld" recently, and there's a moment when Aaron Paul's character Caleb is having a telephone conversation with a sympathetic HR employee who tells him that he didn't get the job. "Listen, Caleb. Your application was very strong. Unfortunately, our strategy group just hasn't found an opening for you." Caleb sighs, and says nothing. The HR employee gently asks, "Caleb, are you still with me?" "Ok, thank you. Is there anything I should be working on to make myself a better candidate?" "Like I said, your application was very strong. We just don't have anything that would be a great fit for you right now." "If I'm not a good fit, is there a different shape I could squeeze myself into?" There is a pause. Caleb asks, "Hey, no offense but... are you human?" "I'm Shaun," the voice says. "I can help you with all kinds of resources... anything else I can do for you today, Caleb?" This feels a lot like that. |
It did polite social chitchat quite well.
But there were a few tell-tale signs: the bot would never interrupt or overlap my talking. It would always wait until I finished speaking to parse my speech, and its pauses were very consistent and slightly longer than what was natural.
When I asked it if it were a robot, it replied, "(giggle) why, do I sound like a robot?"
When I threw it a few unconventional questions, it quickly became clear that there was a script.