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by wongarsu 481 days ago
The most immediate application for this might be in replacing call centers in various roles. And most of those are very conversational.

For example tech support is in large parts about making the caller feel heard and getting them to do trouble shooting steps without feeling stupid. Sales is in large parts about getting the right person to talk to you and to keep them talking to you.
2 comments
gorgoiler 481 days ago
That's a good point, and one that aligns with scenarios where I don't know what I want (traditional search, or research) or don't know why something has happened (calling a contact center to debug a business issue). I'm sure the implementations of these tools will be able to figure out, from my tone and language, whether I do or do not want to be asked about the weather while unblocking my credit card.
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pjc50 481 days ago
As is fake tech support.

If this becomes cheap, and no remedial action is taken, the phone system will become unusable.

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wongarsu 481 days ago
In many places tier one tech support is "fake" tech support. The kind where you ask users "what color is are the contacts if your power plug" because rebooting may solve the issue but most callers will lie about performing or having performed that step.

It's much better for specialized products. But products and services with a large and broad customer base spend the early stages of tech support filtering out the routine issues, and that lends itself to automaton

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