Chatbot

JC pontificates about technology An occasional series. →Go uptown What’s a cute little neural network like you doing in a place like this anyway? Technology Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

“Any sufficiently primitive middle manager will be unable to distinguish a basic chatbot from magic.”

—JC’s sixth law of worker entropy

It’s just so obvious when you think about it.

Lawyers are ornery, craggy, expensive and equivocal, and if they do give you a straight answer it will be so hamstrung by double negatives, passives and arcane constructions that most likely you won’t understand what they say anyway.

Why not just use a chatbot? It works okay for triaging customer complaints about Virgin Media’s godforsaken internet service, doesn’t it?

The Time Blawg has an excellent series in which its author, the redoubtable Brian Inkster, valiantly tries to engage with chatbots. Well recommended.

See also

• A World Without Work
• Chess
• Why is reg tech so disappointing?
• Innovation and the innovation paradox