[ancientworldnow]

No, it's that chat bots have no actual power to fix most issues. They exist to make it more difficult to escalate up the bureaucracy where there is staff that can actually problem solve, issue refunds, give credits, etc. Chat bots are merely a filter to get rid of easily pacified pushover customers and those who refuse to read instructions or documentation.

[foobarchu]

And the ones that can do something would be better served as a simple form.

My state has used a chatbot for car registration renewals for years. It works just fine, I can't truly complain, but it's literally just a higher friction way to fill in a short form. Why did it need to be a chatbot?

[oriolid]

The usual explanation, true or not, is that someone was selling the state a chatbot as the modern solution and since the buyer isn't spending their own money they will happily buy it without thinking if it's useful.

[eastbound]

It’s a state, they need to showcase the modern stuff, both to fund new ideas and to show modernity to the citizen.

[satvikpendem]

Yep, if a chatbot could do all those things then I'd honestly rather use that chatbot than talk to a human, unless I had some very specific concern. But it seems that GPT models can understand other humans just fine.

[kristiandupont]

I recently un-forked a repository on Github. This is not something there is UI for, you need to go through customer service. That was mostly a chat bot. Since I felt that if anyone has a bot that is able to actually do something, it's Github, so I went with it and my repo was un-forked right away. I think there was a person involved but that felt mostly like a screening process. And for that I agree: I like the human touch when I order, say, coffee. Not when I just need to get something done.

[rmbyrro]

What do you mean by "other" humans?

[satvikpendem]

As in LLMs have human-like understanding in a way that previous chatbots did not, they can both understand and emit human text.

[laxd]

... they can both understand and emit human text.

Yikes! We are headed towards customer service hell. At least I'd like there to be some human feelings while I'm getting fucked.

[satvikpendem]

Why is that yikes? Navigating a UI is oftentimes easier than calling in and being placed on hold. Not in all cases, as I've said, but many.

[laxd]

Phone queues are frustrating. But I'm not there to get mindless text generated back at me. I've already experienced it. Reminds me of all the dystopian art trying to depict the human despair and powerlessness of facing the system that society has created.

[hiAndrewQuinn]

patio11's recent "Seeing Like a Bank" makes a pretty persuasive argument that these kinds of first pass filters are in fact very important to ensure that costs can stay reasonable to you and I, the rare times we do actually have a problem and usually have to walk far up the chain of command to get it fixed.

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/seeing-like-a-bank/

[seanhunter]

The thing about that line of argument is that the balance between things being sorted by the bot vs needing a human is almost never right.

My current employer has a slack helpbot where you dm the bot and it does a first pass at trying to find the right ticket/form etc to solve your problem. If it can't, it opens a regular helpdesk ticket with the info you have given it so far and the helpdesk sorts your problem out. It's great.

Most corporate chatbots however are not like this. For example, when I went recently to resolve a problem with an insurance policy I got pushed on the website to the chatbot. After going through a bit of annoying to-ing and fro-ing the chatbot told me it couldn't do anything and I had to call up. At this point all the information I had given it while it was trying to resolve my problem is in the dumpster and as far as its concerned, job done. I however have wasted a bunch of time and am back to square 1. Worse than that, when I sit in the (now incredibly long) phone queue to speak to the few human helpdesk agents who remain I have to listen to the recording repeatedly telling me "why not use our super-helpful chatbot".

[Terr_]

> Chat bots are merely a filter

No, it's also about data entry. It would be a terrible waste for a human to be sitting there going: "No, that account ID isn't right either, please check again."

[dopidopHN]

On point.

A few chatbot can actually do stuff and then it’s fine.

[tmccrary55]

Until it isn't?