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Artificial Concern

“It’s really an untouched area for the airline industry that we need to develop very fast,” says CEO Ed Sims of Canadian airline WestJet. The area being developed: an artificially intelligent “virtual concierge service” they call “Juliet”. One woman got to experience the chatbot’s “intelligence” firsthand when she tried to give kudos to an employee. “Shout out to the crew member on my flight today,” she told Juliet, “who helped me take care of a plant cutting by breaking out her own duct tape and helping me make a protective case to get a new succulent home.” Juliet was concerned. “We take these comments very seriously,” it replied. “If you’re having these thoughts, please reach out to the Canada Association for Suicide Prevention.” The customer — who ironically works in the AI field — wasn’t upset at the unexpected response. “I’m pretty impressed with the scripting in there,” she said. “It was pretty sensitive for them to kind of address, you know, if there are concerns like that. I think it was really well written.” (MS/CBC) ...Fake intelligence: more impressive than real obliviocy.