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Human Backup

Nice essay on what it means to be a human backup to a chatbot. We don't usually think about what hoes on behind the scenes when engaging or choosing not to engage with a chatbot. It is interesting how the lines between a response of a bot and a human can turn blurry if the question is such that no clear response is possible. We have all been there - talking to a real human rep in person or on the phone about a situation too unique for them to provide a resolution. They are have no human backup like Brenda the chatbot does in this essay. 

They resort to the exception option in their script that sounds very much like an insensitive bot response. How can they not hear the words coming out of our mouth, how can they be so oblivious to our plight - are questions that come to mind. Surely, they too have to deal with life situations that are off-script and need someone on the other side to hear and understand the real issue. Why does that empathy not transfer to their transactions with people in uncommon situations. The author answers that question quite well here. I particularly like the way she experiences the passage of time being the human backup to a 24/7 chatbot

Time went through a variety of contortions. Every second was a monolith. As I watched the clock, I felt stranded; time had left me terminally in the present. Hours, on the other hand, were as thin as tissue. I would start a shift in the morning and then, in an instant, find myself on the other side, sitting in a room of lengthening shadows, as if the intervening hours had been snipped out with scissors.

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