[NetBehaviour] Bot or Not Bot - What do you think?

michael gurstein gurstein at gmail.com
Wed Nov 21 19:15:33 CET 2012


Hi,

Probably a bot, but I`ve had quite similar telephone conversations with
evidently human folks with more or less the same result reading from the
same Service Centre consultant derived script... But the existential
question of course, is to you does it make a difference and even more
interesting does it make a difference to who or what is at the other end and
if so what sort of a difference.

M

-----Original Message-----
From: netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org
[mailto:netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org] On Behalf Of marc
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 9:13 AM
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
Subject: [NetBehaviour] Bot or Not Bot - What do you think?

Bot or Not Bot - What do you think?

OK - I have just copied this from Facebook - it's interesting in view of how
things are changing due to bots being placed where once we had conversations
with humans.

Have a read and see if you can tell if it's a bot talking to Sue Thomas.

-------------------------------


So I ordered a vacuum cleaner from Amazon and got an email saying its ETA
was today. But when it hadn't arrived by mid-afternoon, I checked out the
Yodel delivery site to see whether there is a latest time for their
deliveries, since I need to go to the shop. This is the conversation I had
in the Yodel live help chatroom:

Christy: 15:57:28 Hi Sue, my name is Christy from Yodel. How can I help?

sue: 16:01:15 ah sorry
16:01:35 i am waiting for a delivery which is currently at the regional srt
centre
16:01:56 my questio is - when is the latest it might be delivered? i need to
go out.
16:03:02 the reference is xxxx

Christy: 16:05:57 I'm just checking the system for you now, one moment
please.

sue: 16:06:15 thanks

Christy: 16:10:15 Your item is estimated to be deliverd on the 20/11
16:10:37 You need to get intouch with the sender of this parcel ...Amazon

sue: 16:10:42 that's yesterday!

Christy: 16:11:06 Your item is not out for delivery today.

sue: 16:11:09 but your website tells me it is In transit to local service
centre

Christy: 16:11:25 Your delivery contract is with Amazon and they'll be able
to help you with the next steps.

sue: 16:12:00 but ok, if not today that's fine, I can go out. Thanks! 
But how can what you say be right when your website tells me you have it?
16:14:52 are you still there?

Christy: 16:15:23 You need to contact Amazon as soon as possible Sue.

sue: 16:16:22 But I don't understand why, since it has been received at your
regional sort centre - please can you explain?

Christy: 16:17:48 Sue you need to contact the sender please.
16:17:54 Is there anything else I can help you with?

sue: 16:19:15 Yes, has something happened to my parcel ? Do you have that
information? Is it not at Yodel's regional sort centre after all? 
It says it arrived at 10.37 today and is in Prime sort, but I don't know
what that is
16:19:42 Description Location Date Time In transit to local service centre
Prime sort 21st Nov 2012 10:37

Christy: 16:19:46 Contact the sender for all these information.

sue: 16:19:58 But you are the carrier

Christy: 16:20:25 Yes please.
16:20:42 Do you still require assistance?

sue: 16:20:47 okay, I'm going to paste this whole conversation on Facebook
because it makes no sense
16:21:19 oh wait, are you a bot?

Christy: 16:21:59 Is there anything else I can help you with?

sue: 16:22:37 You are a bot! You passed the Turing Test! I honestly thought
you were human at the beginning.

--- At this point I was waiting for the next offer of assistance, and was
going to tell her that sometimes I experience a deep existential loneliness
and could she help me with that. But after a minute or so, the chat room
disappeared.

So what do you think - was that a bot? Or not? !!
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