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778 points · 742 comments · plesiv

  1. maherbeg · · focus · HN ↗
    OK, there's a lot of negative comments here, but this is a great idea at a high level. It really is hard to figure out where to do a thing and it's also very easy to get phished. If they can figure out how to help people get all the services they're eligible for that'll be an amazing improvement for the people.
    1. gthrow12345 · · focus · HN ↗
      I agree in general, but how do you resolve the problem that people will take the output of the chatbot as authoritative even when it could possibly have errors or miss important nuance? People being lead astray with information from the government could lead to very serious consequences, up to and including imprisonment.

      Honest question, I had the same issue when my work wanted me to stick a chatbot in front of our HR portal and I never resolved it to my satisfaction.

      1. jpcfl · · focus · HN ↗
        > how do you resolve the problem that people will take the output of the chatbot as authoritative even when it could possibly have errors or miss important nuance?

        Compare this with the benchmark.

        Earlier this year I called ABC with a question about my liquor license and spoke to three different agents. Each one gave me a different answer. All of them were wrong.

        1. mitchellst · · focus · HN ↗
          Exactly this. "Compared to what?"

          There's a ton of hearsay and rumor about how the US Government works, even among educated/sophisticated people who are dextrous with bureaucracy. The problem gets much worse as you go down the educational ladder, which is most of the US population.

          The Perfect, please meet The Good. You are not enemies.

        2. dxdm · · focus · HN ↗
          Did you try your question on the website?
          1. jpcfl · · focus · HN ↗
            Yes. That is why I called ABC.

            If you're really curious, I want to get a Type-86 tasting license for my store. The ABC site[1] says my kind of store (<5000sqft) is "generally" not qualified, which makes it sound like there are exceptions (spoiler: there are).

            The first agent told me that the license is not an add-on, meaning I'd have to complete a very long process to obtain the license. This was wrong. It's an add-on.

            The second agent told me that I was not eligible because I have less than 5000sqft of space. Not true (see below).

            The third told my wife that 75% of the items in our store need to be alcoholic beverages to qualify. Wrong again.

            I finally asked my legal LLM, which pointed me to the statute, which says, "Type-86 ... can be issued to businesses which also hold off-sale retail licenses [that] earn at least 75 percent of their total gross sales from the sale of alcoholic beverages." Ultimately, it comes down to how ABC interprets and enforces this law, so I really expected to get some clarity from them rather than complete falsities.

            [1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.abc.ca.gov&#x2F;instructional-tasting-license-for-off-sale-licensees&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.abc.ca.gov&#x2F;instructional-tasting-license-for-off...

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