Artificial Intelligence (Ai) - Blessing Or A Curse?

[ECCOnoob]

48 minutes ago, melthebell said:

 

 

Why cant i just speak to a human being grrrrrrrrrr

Because human beings cost a lot of money.  They have to be recruited and managed and trained and developed and disciplined time and time and over which requires even more human beings.  A machine can be programmed once and it's intelligence copied over to any other machine at the press of a button.

 

A human being takes time off for holidays or sickness .  Machines don't.  Human beings have working hour restrictions and rest periods, machines just keep on going.  

 

I get the points that Anna says about customer service and I agree that some things are better with the personal touch, but "good customer service" is a very broad definition and can be many things to many people.

 

Some people would argue that the ability to browse something, get information on something, making enquiries and ordering something 24/7 is good customer service.  Some people would argue that being able to make a banking transaction whenever they need to or get something delivered to their door within the hour or sometimes even minutes of ordering is part of good customer service - But of course only being made possible thanks to the machine.

 

Whilst some long for the days of the old fashioned department stores and grocer shops with that personal service from the nice man behind the counter, others would argue that good customer service is the ability to go into a store 24 hours a day nipping in/out without having to queue or sit around waiting when they can just grab and go what they need and be out  the door.

 

Same with cafes or restaurants, yes on some occasions people do want the personal service. But let's be frank, fast, almost self serve food has been around a long time. When time is precious the ability to place orders on a kiosk or app, then have it handed to you within minutes of walking through the door has got to be seen as an advantage for some.

 

I cant imagining some of the youngers today having to face going into a snack bar sitting around waiting for the waitress to take their order, wait for it to be made and then sit around the again waiting to pay the bill. 

 

There has to be a balance and some level of facing the inevitable that the world is constantly changing. The machines aren't going away.

 

Ultimately, it is us consumers who embrace this revolution and gave these companies the dominance they have.  Going back only 40 years, we had those traditional style businesses dominating our High streets and towns until  those new fangled quick service, American style restaurants and boom.... We leapt at the chance and never looked back.

 

Exactly the same sort of change happened when the outer town supermarkets took over the high street grocers. Then it was the huge mega malls of the 80s and 90s. Now it's internet shopping started to dominate and nibble at the heels of department stores, banks and travel industry with I suspect vast majority of people barely stepping in your travel agent from one year to next.

 

Tell only way it will stop is the people to choose to stop using.  But that dam is already burst.

[altus]

1 hour ago, melthebell said:

Think i was a victim of negative AI yesterday? lol

 

In April i left my job, been looking since, after a quick start with some interviews which i didnt get i thought i better start a claim for Universal credit, interview to start it was meant to be next Thursday.

Yesterday i got notification that i have indeed got a job after i succeeded in an interview so thought i better cancel my UC claim, so phoned up the Jobcentre where my interview wouldve been.

The voice on the phone just asks you questions, when you say yes it moves on, anyway it  asked if it was about Universal credit, as soon as i said yes it said go online to your journal and put the phone down on me lol

 

Why cant i just speak to a human being grrrrrrrrrr

Congrats on the new job.

 

It's much cheaper for them if you do things online. As a comparison, it costs a bank about 1/10th as much to process a transaction in a call centre than in a branch and about 1/10th as much to process the same transaction online as in a call centre. There'll be similar cost ratios for other in person/via call centre/online things.

 

[Anna B]

There are supermarkets in London (maybe here too but I've never seen one,) that have no personnel at all. They are completely run by AI.

Face recognition as you go through the door tells them who you are, you pick the items you want from the shelves (the system automatically tracks you and reorders stock,) and walk out of the store with them. Your credit card is automatically debited with the cost of the goods.

 

What could possibly go wrong...?

[redruby]

3 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

Because human beings cost a lot of money.  They have to be recruited and managed and trained and developed and disciplined time and time and over which requires even more human beings.  A machine can be programmed once and it's intelligence copied over to any other machine at the press of a button.

 

A human being takes time off for holidays or sickness .  Machines don't.  Human beings have working hour restrictions and rest periods, machines just keep on going.  

 

I get the points that Anna says about customer service and I agree that some things are better with the personal touch, but "good customer service" is a very broad definition and can be many things to many people.

 

Some people would argue that the ability to browse something, get information on something, making enquiries and ordering something 24/7 is good customer service.  Some people would argue that being able to make a banking transaction whenever they need to or get something delivered to their door within the hour or sometimes even minutes of ordering is part of good customer service - But of course only being made possible thanks to the machine.

 

Whilst some long for the days of the old fashioned department stores and grocer shops with that personal service from the nice man behind the counter, others would argue that good customer service is the ability to go into a store 24 hours a day nipping in/out without having to queue or sit around waiting when they can just grab and go what they need and be out  the door.

 

Same with cafes or restaurants, yes on some occasions people do want the personal service. But let's be frank, fast, almost self serve food has been around a long time. When time is precious the ability to place orders on a kiosk or app, then have it handed to you within minutes of walking through the door has got to be seen as an advantage for some.

 

I cant imagining some of the youngers today having to face going into a snack bar sitting around waiting for the waitress to take their order, wait for it to be made and then sit around the again waiting to pay the bill. 

 

There has to be a balance and some level of facing the inevitable that the world is constantly changing. The machines aren't going away.

 

Ultimately, it is us consumers who embrace this revolution and gave these companies the dominance they have.  Going back only 40 years, we had those traditional style businesses dominating our High streets and towns until  those new fangled quick service, American style restaurants and boom.... We leapt at the chance and never looked back.

 

Exactly the same sort of change happened when the outer town supermarkets took over the high street grocers. Then it was the huge mega malls of the 80s and 90s. Now it's internet shopping started to dominate and nibble at the heels of department stores, banks and travel industry with I suspect vast majority of people barely stepping in your travel agent from one year to next.

 

Tell only way it will stop is the people to choose to stop using.  But that dam is already burst.

Good points.  As ever, some things were better in the old days and some were worse.  
Automation isn’t always a bad thing.  If it means I pay for my goods without having to wait behind *that person* who wants to talk to the sales assistant at length and hold every one up, I’ll take it.   I know sometimes people need to do this but sometimes other people just want to pay quickly.  
 

Edited May 27, 2023 by redruby

[ECCOnoob]

36 minutes ago, Anna B said:

There are supermarkets in London (maybe here too but I've never seen one,) that have no personnel at all. They are completely run by AI.

Face recognition as you go through the door tells them who you are, you pick the items you want from the shelves (the system automatically tracks you and reorders stock,) and walk out of the store with them. Your credit card is automatically debited with the cost of the goods.

 

What could possibly go wrong...?

Not quite, users of such supermarket still have to log into their accounts and scan their way in. 

 

Theoretically lots of things could go wrong.

 

But equally they was plenty of scope for things to go wrong the old fashioned method. The store would have to be staffed by more personnel each of them completely fallible. The store.opening hours would be much more restricted with its operations and procedures much more laborious and costly. Every time customers bought items someone would have to be manually checking the stock levels and daily auditing for reorder. There would be checkouts to be managed, change and floats to be counted and handled by each cashier, there are risks some customer items might be miss checked or wrongly input by the cashier, the day's cash taking has to be all manually counted and then locked away and then physically transported to a bank...... 

 

Of course, technology itself is not completely infallible but it is well proven by now that computers can repeat transactions, learn and calculate for quicker than any human. . That is why we use them so predominantly in everything. Example, for all the skill of a pilot, it is a computer that's keeping those A380s flying saving aeronautics, a human couldn't do the calculations fast enough to keep those satellites and spaceships up there. It's the silicon chip that's advanced our species to create these things.

 

 

[petemcewan]

We  need to  incorporate some advanced Turing Test into our 

communicating devices: that uncloake the AI and alerts us that it's a "bot". So it goes.

[trastrick]

Just now, petemcewan said:

We  need to  incorporate some advanced Turing Test into our 

communicating devices: that uncloake the AI and alerts us that it's a "bot". So it goes.

While some folks could be mistaken for bots, It's actually quite easy to identify a source by the language they use.

 

"Clearly", "We know.....", There have been lots of studies...." etc.

 

They answer rational questions, with a question of their own.

 

The even feel competent to speak for the Science Community, when they tell us, "Scientists say...."

 

Not all that hard, really.   

 

[Padders]

Just seen the news, and the experts are saying that AI could cause human extinction..

Scary.

[melthebell]

15 minutes ago, Padders said:

Just seen the news, and the experts are saying that AI could cause human extinction..

Scary.

just came here to post it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65746524

 

Its not just experts its the heads of the companies that have invented the main ones

 

Some experts have also said it won't, but when you read what they said

"Current AI is nowhere near capable enough for these risks to materialise," he told the BBC. "As a result, it's distracted attention away from the near-term harms of AI".

They never said current, in the future is the future not current.

Edited May 30, 2023 by melthebell

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Padders said:

Just seen the news, and the experts are saying that AI could cause human extinction..

Scary.

So it is,  but we were busy doing that anyway.