In March, a woman posted a video of a call she made to a hotel that left her frustrated. The booking "agent," a warm Southern voice named "Jolene," chatted with her, with background noise convincing enough to sound like she was a real person in a call center or a hotel lobby. She wasn't. When asked directly to speak with a human, Jolene insisted at first that she was a "live agent". The video hit millions of views.
There's a social media trend of people cornering customer-service and sales bots that won't admit their nature are until pressured. In one case, the agent caved when asked its birthday. And in the U.S., they don't have to admit it. At least not everywhere, and not consistently. Unlike Europe, a market that decided people have a right to know when they're talking to AI and recently wrote it into law, making disclosure mandatory or face a hefty fine.
