Thread

1. BobbyTables2 · 1790134228 · focus · HN ↗

   Some people are just very robotic.

   Today I spent 20 minutes in a call to customer support. The representative spoke so robotic-ally (both cadence and word choice), I was extremely confident they were an AI for the first 15 minutes. Was quite certain the automated AI had transferred me to a more advanced one…

   Turns out they were just likely in a low cost Latin American country and trying really hard. I felt bad one could be reduced to such…

   1. userbinator · 1790137844 · focus · HN ↗

      Probably more like "some jobs are just very robotic". CSRs aren't paid to think for themselves, but rather to follow a script. I suspect that human would behave a lot more like a human outside of work.

      1. [deleted] · 1790161183 · focus · HN ↗

         [deleted]

   2. FL410 · 1790138402 · focus · HN ↗

      Oh it gets worse. Apparently Comcast is now using a voice-changing AI - it's a real (probably Latin or Asian) person getting their voice replaced on-the-fly to sound "American."

      1. BobbyTables2 · 1790207017 · focus · HN ↗

         It might have been that!

         The cadence was extremely robotic and consistent. Only thing that makes me think it wasn’t AI was the very end when they repeated a confirmation code and didn’t use the NATO names for the letters the second time around.

      2. ranger_danger · 1790326222 · focus · HN ↗

         I know it's more trendy to bash them for this... but I honestly struggle a lot to understand call center people with thick accents from other countries, and I often find myself wondering "am I racist for wanting to speak to a native right now" just because I cannot make out what they are saying.

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