This will kill people.
Yes. So many. Everyone involved in this decision, on both the legislative and corporate sides, needs to get the fucking wall.
But it’s new Orleans, so some of the difficult to emotionally comprehend number of deaths it causes might at least be funny.
I have mixed feelings on this and how they are implementing it. Here’s the direct quote
This is intended to handle the increase of calls that are related to one incident, so callers get automatically routed to an AI agent who asks if they are calling regarding the incident. If the answer is yes, then callers can receive information or updates, and if it’s no, then the callers are transferred to a human.
In a way this will reduce caller volume for the same incidents being called in over and over again. Seems like they are using a direct yes or no question which decreases any issues with the AI making shit up.
I do see how this can free up humans to deal with other calls and dispatch lifesaving services faster, eliminating repeat calls.
However, even if the AI works as described (which is a big if anyway), having to navigate even a simple yes or no will reduce time to lifesaving care.
Our 911 system has been slow and inadequate for a long time now. There has been an absolute refusal to fix it, and this has led to deaths. I do see this application easing that issue a bit, but I also see how this will cause deaths in a different way. Is it better to die on hold waiting for an operator or is it better to die navigating an AI system? I think less would die overall with the new system. It has been trained using the non-emergency call line.
To be clear I want us to just fund people to staff the 911 call center, but these shortages have been an issue for decades. Local governments refuse or are unable to take on the additional costs. I’m really unsure on how to feel about all this. My gut reaction is disgust, but I do see what they are trying to do. I guess we’ll have to wait for the data and stories
The key is to remember you can’t actually fix anything except with the wacky fashionable new scam. .and since when does a y/n require fucking “ai"?
They know it will. They don’t care.
But…just think how many money they can save! You are being selfish!
/s
Yeah, I can just imagine how well a “AI” would deal with a situation like this when they can’t even operate a drive-thru properly.
I ask this out of genuine, burning curiosity, and mean no rudeness by this…
Did you read the article that the OP linked to?
I don’t mean to single you out with this question, I’m just confused after scrolling this far through sooo many similar comments. It almost feels as if I somehow ended up reading a different article from everyone else.
Did you read the article?
callers get automatically routed to an AI agent who asks if they are calling regarding the incident. If the answer is yes, then callers can receive information or updates, and if it’s no, then the callers are transferred to a human.
So if somebody calls and is completely out of his mind, what will AI do?
So if somebody calls and is completely out of his mind, what will AI do?
Is this a rhetorical question?
Just in case you wanted a real answer: The caller is obviously not saying “yes,” so transfer to human.
To be clear: I don’t know anyone at Carbyne or OPCD. I can only offer speculation. But I’m curious: What would you have guessed?
I guess you don’t have lots of interaction with AI yet?
Very incorrect. Why do you ask?
I gave you the benefit of the doubt. If you’ve had lots of interactions with AI, I am not sure how you can think that anything with AI can work as expected, specially in complicated edge cases.
Working my way through Person of Interest again. Just watched one where a search company was directing suicidal inquiries to ads instead of helplines. And that was before they get bought by the evil AI overlord. Its surreal seeing Palantir, Flock and all the tech companies race to implement a dystopia no sane person would ever want and there is so little push back. What the fuck is wrong with regular people?
This is exhausting y’all. God I fucking hate LLMs so much. This tech could be such a exciting break through, a step towards real artificial intelligence, but stuck in academia where it belongs. Instead of getting to be excited and interested this inanimate compilation of matrices is breathing down my neck constantly.
This tech could be such a exciting break through, a step towards real artificial intelligence
No, not really lol.
The best analogy for this that I’ve heard is that it’s like saying elevators are a step towards teleporters. Calling it “intelligence” is a marketing coup. It is not intelligence, artificial or otherwise.
Have you seen the first elevators? Or even used a chat bot prior to this? The definition of “AI” for a long time was just “decision trees” or some really neat classification systems. This is different. The hype and terrible business practices is the problem not the idea itself.
I also agree that calling it Artificial intelligence is a marking scheme, it’s a loaded term machine learning is better. This has always kinda been a problem. Technically it’s very loosely defined. I always refer to it as LLMs
So now we’re at the stage of killing people directly, got it!
Grok911, what is your emergency and do you know about the genocide of white South Africans?
there are tv shows that explain why this shit shouldn’t be done…
like AI rejecting calls because the people were (rightly) hysterical and the AI could not calm them down.
People will die.
Yeah but it’s just poor people so who cares. Look at the sweet pool the AI company bought whoever approved this!
Can I get desperately needed help please??? N.O.
Sure, what could possibly go wrong?
That title is written by someone who failed basic grammar. It should be “New Orleans will use AI instead of humans to answer 911 calls”.
What it says as it’s written is “AI will only answer 911 calls but not a human”… which doesn’t make any sense.It’s also sensationalized. I guess the article’s actual headline just isn’t spicy enough:
New Orleans hoping limited AI use could speed response for emergencies
Everyone should read before reacting:
This is intended to handle the increase of calls that are related to one incident, so callers get automatically routed to an AI agent who asks if they are calling regarding the incident. If the answer is yes, then callers can receive information or updates, and if it’s no, then the callers are transferred to a human.
This makes sense. A big thing happens that you are aware of. Geolocated calls from that area flood in. An operator, who could be getting useful info, has to handle a flood of “Guess what I just saw!”
Note that I think they should spend the money on more operators instead, but at least this seems like it has good guardrails.
Even assuming perfect conditions - where the caller very clearly states what’s happening and the AI agent understands everything properly - this is a waste of resources. Just hire more operators dawg. It’s really not that complicated.
And then think about what happens outside of those perfect conditions. So pretty much most calls.
Just hire more operators dawg. It’s really not that complicated.
Have offered your recruiting skills/services to them? The nationwide 911 operator/dispatcher shortage has been a problem for years, so if you find it easy or uncomplicated to recruit them, then your services might be very valuable.
(Yes, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here by assuming that that was an informed opinion.)
Except that could be done without AI. Just have a recording that says "we are aware of … taking place near you, are you calling about this ? “, then answer with yes/no.
No need for bullshit AI.
Have you ever met humans? That would be a recipe for “no I’m not calling about that, I want a human” just to get to a human and say you’re calling about exactly that.
You don’t need AI for that. Automated phone answering systems do exist, and can redirect people.
This is basically a beefed up IVR with better customer satisfaction reports, so… yes.
But as I said in the other comment, giving updates to callers is something a standard answering system can’t do.
How many operators to handle say 100 calls in 5 minutes? Now imagine the cost to staff a small 911 center to ensure your can handle those calls 24/7. The money doesn’t exist.
Butts in seats don’t exist right now either. As long as the fancy ivr allows the caller to reach a human with minimal effort, this seems like a scary sounding but neat
assistantsolution to a problem without a real solution.Well it wouldn’t cost much cause you’d only need to employ them for a very short amount of time on occasion. Just have a large team of trained staff on call - its just that simple!
Listen to yourself. Have a large team of trained staff on call. How much do you think that costs? No go on guess. Do some calculations. The people do not exist to fill the seats. The money does not exist to pay the non-existent people. This is an attempt to make an already shitty situation better.
I work in this industry and I read the article. I understand what they are doing. I hate AI but this seems reasonable.
yeah no shit…
So did I completely misread your comment? LOL
I feel like i was pretty clearly joking.
It went over my head. Sorry. Everything is not the onion these days.
:sigh: Yet again, nobody reads the fucking article and it is VERY obvious from most of the comments. If you can’t be bothered, then don’t fucking comment.
If you had READ the article: They’re answering with the AI saying like “Are you calling about X?” If the callers says no, they are transferred to a human. If they ARE calling about an incident, then they can get updates and information about it.
Now, I grant that this is still not perfect, but the stated goal is humans spending less time talking to people reporting an incident already reported so they can actually talk to people needing help faster.
Assuming that works out, this is actually a good idea and an improvement.
Now, if you wanna be cynical about it, fine. But just read the damn article and be cynical about what’s actually happening, not about what you think from the headline, or all you end up looking like an ass.
I came into the comments to have a good discussion on the issue. I should have known better. I’m so irritated by the majority of comments that I lost interested in the topic itself, even though there’s at least one ofther comment I saw also pointing out what the article says. But no, the majority of you can’t be bothered, so screw this. And you bitch about reddit.
Still, it’s a sloppy headline designed for clicks or thumbs up. It would be more accurate if it was “AI is to initially screen calls….”
You don’t need “ai” for this though. IVRs have been doing this for literal decades. Your average dialup ISP had a standard option for times of outages ffs.
All yall saying this is gunna kill people do not live in New Orleans. 911 is well know to move at the pace of a snail goin the wrong way up an escalator. This can only improve things (it won’t, but anything helps) , worst case it’s a change that no one notices. Some ones nephew got a contract for this, I garuntee it.
Hire more operators? Nah Ai bot? Sure Solid logic I also love how bloated police budgets are but get the other departments in the city related are struggling to keep the lights on.
