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I dislike this intensely. Presumably poorer people can look forward to longer queues. Richer people might prefer to talk to the best agents at solving problems

I dislike this intensely. Presumably poorer people can look forward to longer queues. Richer people might prefer to talk to the best agents at solving problems over the agents that "show results with high-income callers". I forsee, and hope for, some pushback against the increasingly egregious abuse of our info in the name of selling us ever more crap. I'm quite glad I've joined little online up to my real name, though google have probably figured too much out.

rz2k 10y ago
They could also not solve the problem. If someone isn't going to buy a lot more from you, doesn't talk to people who will buy a lot from you, and are unlikely to go to small claims court why give them an RMA? If some of your merchandise was damaged in the warehouse, why not bin that for people who have less recourse according to your market research? In the distant past an unethical person running a store could do those types of things to people from a family that was usually picked on in a small town or to people whose ethnicity or race meant that they wouldn't be believed if they reported that a store was acting in bad faith or not honoring their terms. I agree with you that it is a terrible thing to do, though I think it is more of a return to the old normal compared to recent past, rather than something entirely new.
- gohrt 10y ago
  ...and they will defend against any accusations of discrimination or abuse by saying "no PERSON here did anything wrong -- we use a fully automated AI Machine Learning logistics system that optimizes our warehouse and delivery operations. We don't know why it picks which items to give to which customers" This is the Unfriendly AI that people like MIRI should be worried about.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Ironically, it seems that even if Friendly AIs were the default state in our reality, malicious actors (like advertisers) would iterate on them until they get an Unfriendly one...
kristopolous 10y ago
I don't know if income would be a sorting dimension here. Account history and delinquency maybe... But if the service is say $40/month from an operations or BI perspective, what advantage do you gain by prioritizing wealthier customers? A far better solution would be to have a 900 number for the wealthier customers to call where you charge them a premium for faster service. They'll self sort and you don't have to do anything.

rz2k 10y ago

They could also not solve the problem. If someone isn't going to buy a lot more from you, doesn't talk to people who will buy a lot from you, and are unlikely to go to small claims court why give them an RMA? If some of your merchandise was damaged in the warehouse, why not bin that for people who have less recourse according to your market research? In the distant past an unethical person running a store could do those types of things to people from a family that was usually picked on in a small town or to people whose ethnicity or race meant that they wouldn't be believed if they reported that a store was acting in bad faith or not honoring their terms. I agree with you that it is a terrible thing to do, though I think it is more of a return to the old normal compared to recent past, rather than something entirely new.

gohrt 10y ago
...and they will defend against any accusations of discrimination or abuse by saying "no PERSON here did anything wrong -- we use a fully automated AI Machine Learning logistics system that optimizes our warehouse and delivery operations. We don't know why it picks which items to give to which customers" This is the Unfriendly AI that people like MIRI should be worried about.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Ironically, it seems that even if Friendly AIs were the default state in our reality, malicious actors (like advertisers) would iterate on them until they get an Unfriendly one...

kristopolous 10y ago

I don't know if income would be a sorting dimension here. Account history and delinquency maybe... But if the service is say $40/month from an operations or BI perspective, what advantage do you gain by prioritizing wealthier customers? A far better solution would be to have a 900 number for the wealthier customers to call where you charge them a premium for faster service. They'll self sort and you don't have to do anything.