by jmpman on 9/6/24, 10:54 AM
I just had a call with Southwest Airlines today, trying to change a flight. The agent was an absolute delight. She understood what I was trying to accomplish, and what my secondary goals were (to get a promotion companion pass for next year), and ultimately recommended me hanging up and canceling my ticket and rebooking through my travel agency. There’s no way an Ai would have come up with that same solution. During that brief interaction, she was Southwest Airlines to me. Why I’m telling this story is that there are thousands of MBA drooling at the idea of getting rid of the person who just delighted me in this interaction, and replacing them with a lifeless AI. That’s the lowest hanging fruit for OpenAI to achieve its revenue goals - replacing people that provide, if not the human face, but the human voice of a company, its values and its sense of humor. That’s my worry. These people, who thrive in providing excellent customer service, and going to be replaced by matrix multiplication.