Free Speech
I was traveling this weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding. On the drive there, my car was damaged when a piece of metal pipe flew off of a flatbed truck and glanced off my roof. Fortunately, nobody was injured and the damage to the car was minor. When I called Allstate to report the incident, I was first confronted with an automated answering system.
This was not surprising, and I listened, waiting for the menu of options. I was taken aback when the recorded voice instructed me to describe the issue I needed help with. It proceeded to give me an example. Not expecting this, I hadn’t been giving it my full attention. My first attempt was something like “Uh, I need to, uh, report a claim.” The word “claim” I had fortunately picked up from the provided example, or I would have been at a complete loss. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t understand, and gave me a second chance to state the reason for which I was calling. Better prepared, this time I said, “I need to make a new claim.” This was close enough—the system spoke its interpretation of my request, and I made it into a standard menu system that got me to a claims agent.
Chances are, the system is smart enough to have understood me if I told it that I was in an accident, that my car was damaged, or something similar. I’m going to assume that since this system is in service, it is reasonably capable. What I find really interesting is my own reaction to this new, completely unexpected interaction. Obviously, it was not introduced sufficiently. It took me by surprise, and I was therefore not able to coherently communicate with it. I immediately tried to think of what words I should use that it would understand. I assumed it would be dumber than it likely is. It didn’t give me enough time to consider the implications. So, I floundered, stuttered, and made illegible (to a computer) noises.
I would be extremely interested to see the results of their user testing, assuming such tests were performed. I wonder if they performed tests in which the users did not receive any explanation prior to that given by the system.