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That’s not the problem here unfortunately. The problem here is that there is no interconnection of any kind between any system that knows about city A and B and

That’s not the problem here unfortunately. The problem here is that there is no interconnection of any kind between any system that knows about city A and B and the systems which know about city C. So there’s literally no way to help a customer who has a problem described in those systems. An AGI chatbot couldn’t be any more helpful than the human was because it has no access to anything about city C. Now could that be fixed? From a tech perspective of course it could. However there’s probably a deep organizational reason this hasn’t happened. In this case, it’s because city C is a bunch of customers they bought during the windup of a bankrupt life insurance company and are running them down over time. So there probably isn’t enough profit in the portfolio they are running down to justify the IT investment. As I say, these are the kind of things a chatbot (however smart) isn’t going to be able to fix.

fragmede 3y ago
> there is no interconnection of any kind between any system that knows about city A and B and the systems which know about city C The AGI, via DuplexAI, could just call up the office in city C and ask. It's been calling restaurants to get their hours for years. Having it call a listed phone number to ask a person about an account doesn't seem far fetched at all to me.
- seanhunter 3y ago
  The person at the original call center literally had no idea of the existence of the operation of the company at city C and it didn't have any sort of online presence. The online presence only knew about the operations at city A and B. Remember that C was the zombie part of a defunct company they bought so even the original contact details which might once have existed wouldn't work or be listed any more. The call center person I originally spoke to literally tried to google it while I was on the phone and got an incorrect contact number which I tried so I know it didn't work. The only correct contact details I could find were on the paper statement which was how I knew to write them an old fashioned letter (which was the thing which eventually seems to have worked). Noone at city A or B had this statement - I had it. In any event we're in danger of fixating on my original example and missing the broader point which is that any system or intelligence, human or otherwise, is limited by the data it is able to access. If a company has a very messy and/or disfunctional data landscape[1] then it is difficult bordering on impossible to paper over the cracks with systems or operational processes. [1] which I gave an intentionally extreme example of, but lots of companies are formed from multiple acquisitions or have systems built by rival IT groups in different parts of the org or by outside vendors or contractors etc so a milder form of this is very common in my experience.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    fair point. or otherwise is as much as I was getting at. mail scanning services and text to speech gateways extend the reach of a hypothetical AGI. we don't need to wait for ARA (artificial robot actuation) for the skynetpocalypse to come. plenty of building blocks are already here.
djbusby 3y ago
Right, after mashing the companies together one would need to integrate systems - but that costs money! Money that could be used for executive pay - which they "earned" because of the "successful" merger.

fragmede 3y ago

> there is no interconnection of any kind between any system that knows about city A and B and the systems which know about city C The AGI, via DuplexAI, could just call up the office in city C and ask. It's been calling restaurants to get their hours for years. Having it call a listed phone number to ask a person about an account doesn't seem far fetched at all to me.

seanhunter 3y ago
The person at the original call center literally had no idea of the existence of the operation of the company at city C and it didn't have any sort of online presence. The online presence only knew about the operations at city A and B. Remember that C was the zombie part of a defunct company they bought so even the original contact details which might once have existed wouldn't work or be listed any more. The call center person I originally spoke to literally tried to google it while I was on the phone and got an incorrect contact number which I tried so I know it didn't work. The only correct contact details I could find were on the paper statement which was how I knew to write them an old fashioned letter (which was the thing which eventually seems to have worked). Noone at city A or B had this statement - I had it. In any event we're in danger of fixating on my original example and missing the broader point which is that any system or intelligence, human or otherwise, is limited by the data it is able to access. If a company has a very messy and/or disfunctional data landscape[1] then it is difficult bordering on impossible to paper over the cracks with systems or operational processes. [1] which I gave an intentionally extreme example of, but lots of companies are formed from multiple acquisitions or have systems built by rival IT groups in different parts of the org or by outside vendors or contractors etc so a milder form of this is very common in my experience.
- fragmede 3y ago
  fair point. or otherwise is as much as I was getting at. mail scanning services and text to speech gateways extend the reach of a hypothetical AGI. we don't need to wait for ARA (artificial robot actuation) for the skynetpocalypse to come. plenty of building blocks are already here.

djbusby 3y ago

Right, after mashing the companies together one would need to integrate systems - but that costs money! Money that could be used for executive pay - which they "earned" because of the "successful" merger.