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>Asking a user to interact with one of these chat interfaces is like asking them what they want - every time they use the software. Asking what a user wants wo

>Asking a user to interact with one of these chat interfaces is like asking them what they want - every time they use the software. Asking what a user wants would be having a competent customer service representative, and would be simple, like asking me to drive home from work. Voice prompts require me to intuit the customer support structure in order to guess where the path is to reach my category of issue. It's like asking me to walk home from work in the sewer system.

haswell 4y ago
For use cases that are well-suited to a conversational interface, that's great, and new AI advances will make chatbots more powerful than they've ever been. But not every use case is a chatbot use case, and I think that's the key point of the article. The sudden viability of a conversational interface that is good enough at having a fluid conversation to revolutionize the experience of that conversation does not suddenly make this interface the best fit for all use cases. I still find it far more pleasant to browse to a page and see a list of clearly displayed options that I can absorb at a glance and get on to what I really need to accomplish in the moment. Even a perfect conversationalist can't remove the extra friction involved in disclosing information. The question is whether that loss of efficiency is outweighed/nullified by a better overall experience.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Even if someone designed an awesomely sophisticated air flight search engine that knew my usual preferences and could search for me and respond to follow-up prompts, I'd probably still want to see the information displayed on a page rather than read to me for the most part.
  - haswell 4y ago
    I think this might point to an opportunity to explore hybrid interfaces that allow you to just have a conversation while still having a visual representation of everything going on. But still agree with the sentiment here. There are applications that I cannot imagine ever wanting to interact with via a bot.
    - dshah 4y ago
      This is how I've been thinking about it. Hybrid interfaces that combine visual cues and output and natural language input.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        That's what I had in mind. Happy to talk to the computer but show me the results on a screen. If I'm typing in a freeform query, I'd generally just as soon say it instead. (Assuming I'm somewhere I can talk.)

haswell 4y ago

For use cases that are well-suited to a conversational interface, that's great, and new AI advances will make chatbots more powerful than they've ever been. But not every use case is a chatbot use case, and I think that's the key point of the article. The sudden viability of a conversational interface that is good enough at having a fluid conversation to revolutionize the experience of that conversation does not suddenly make this interface the best fit for all use cases. I still find it far more pleasant to browse to a page and see a list of clearly displayed options that I can absorb at a glance and get on to what I really need to accomplish in the moment. Even a perfect conversationalist can't remove the extra friction involved in disclosing information. The question is whether that loss of efficiency is outweighed/nullified by a better overall experience.

ghaff 4y ago
Even if someone designed an awesomely sophisticated air flight search engine that knew my usual preferences and could search for me and respond to follow-up prompts, I'd probably still want to see the information displayed on a page rather than read to me for the most part.
- haswell 4y ago
  I think this might point to an opportunity to explore hybrid interfaces that allow you to just have a conversation while still having a visual representation of everything going on. But still agree with the sentiment here. There are applications that I cannot imagine ever wanting to interact with via a bot.
  - dshah 4y ago
    This is how I've been thinking about it. Hybrid interfaces that combine visual cues and output and natural language input.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      That's what I had in mind. Happy to talk to the computer but show me the results on a screen. If I'm typing in a freeform query, I'd generally just as soon say it instead. (Assuming I'm somewhere I can talk.)