1. One thing that helps
Sometimes, working in a call centre is not a fun job. These people are the frontline to our frustrations and shouldn’t have to put up with yelling and screaming. But they often do. Softbank Corp has decided to do something about this by deploying an emotion-cancelling AI tool to remove angry tones making life a little easier for those on the frontline.
An AI voice processor is used to identify the speech patterns of angry customers. It then modifies the intonation of the caller to make the call less aggressive. This doesn’t mean that all anger is removed, otherwise interactions would be less meaningful. The goal of this tech is to make call center agents’ work less abusive. This promotes a more positive interaction during the call, which in turn, should improve the experience for both the agent and the caller.
The fact that we need this tool is a bit depressing. However it seems like people aren’t going to stop yelling at call centre agents soon. So hey, lets make it a little less stressful to be on the other end of that complaint.
2. One to be wary of
Would you vote for an AI politician?
In this year of important elections, it is not surprising to see artificial intelligence being used for propaganda. Taking it a step further are the AI politicians running for office. “AI Steve” is such an example. Steve Endacott, a UK enterpreneur, is running for parliament. What is unusual is his promise to practice democracy through “AI Steve” – a chatbot that constituents can talk with 24/7. From these conversations about policies, the real Steve claims that he can discover what his constituents really want and vote accordingly in parliament.
Recently, OpenAI removed the account of an AI bot that was registering to run for the mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming. “We’ve taken action against these uses of our technology for violating our policies against political campaigning,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNN.
Imagine what John Connor thinks of us now! Electing machines to control our lives. Come on people, surely there is a line somewhere we won’t cross??
3. One to amaze
If you are uncomfortable relying on Tesla’s autopilot, would you rather have a robotic chauffeur commanding the steering wheel?
University of Tokyo researchers have developed “Musashi” – a musculoskeletal humanoid that has similar proportions, joint and muscle structure, to a human. It has high-resolution vision cameras for eyes, capable of looking straight-ahead or glancing at the side-mirror. Its hands can grip the steering wheel and turn the ignition key. Of course, its feet can push down on the accelerator and brake pedals. To be functional, the robot needs Wi-Fi (you’d better hope for a reliable signal), and a computer for its recognition module. Testing in these early days show that Musashi can hit the brakes and halt the car when it detects a human or hears a car’s horn. It also responds well to traffic lights. But it crawls on inclines and takes minutes to turn a corner!
So why Musashi? What’s the difference between Musashi and Tesla’s autonomous system? Well it’s not just what it can do at the driver’s seat. It can help you with carrying bags, accompany you when shopping, or maybe become a mechanic when something needs fixing. Musashi is actually a robotic butler!