{"id":2795,"date":"2024-07-16T19:15:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2795"},"modified":"2024-07-16T19:15:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:15:04","slug":"anthony-vs-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/16\/anthony-vs-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony vs. AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While I like solving problems, I don\u2019t like solving them more than once.\u00a0 When I solve a problem, it should stay<\/em> solved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is why I don\u2019t like plumbing.   Or software where I don\u2019t have access to really fix the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And today it was software. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a program that is normally pretty awesome, but there\u2019s an email problem where it sometimes puts people on a blocked list and then not tell anyone about it.   The emails fail, panic ensures – the usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cfix\u201d – if that\u2019s what you can call it – is to contact the company\u2019s support and request that the addresses be taken off the double-top-secret blocked list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve got a process to identify the problem when it occurs and I know how to report it to get it quickly resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except not anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has added an AI layer to the support process and it is\u2026not great.    When prompted, I put in my request knowing full well this was going to fail but not having any other option. And believe me, I looked for any other option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bot replies that it isn\u2019t allowed to access user information – big surprise – then asks if that answered my question.   (Really?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I click the No button and it tells me that it is very sorry – and asks me if I would like to contact support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tell it yes, and it offers chat, telephone, or email.  Since I have 25 addresses that need to be removed from the blocked list, Chat and Phone aren\u2019t going to cut it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I select Email and it tries to redirect me – and then just sits there spinning. \u00a0 I eventually realize that it\u2019s trying to open a new browser window and I click to allow that.\u00a0 But, by that point, it has forgotten what it was doing and reloads the page I\u2019m on – right up to the point where it tries to hand off to the email support option.\u00a0 I try reloading the chat to get it to trigger again and it keeps getting hung up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I close the entire browser, reopen, log back in, and make my way back to the bot and this time I\u2019m more vague on my request to just get past it.  I was tired of playing the game by that point and so was the AI.  It replied with \u201cI\u201dm sorry I can\u2019t do that, Dave\u201d.  We jump through the hoops again before it finally hands me to the email window.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put in the request quickly since I\u2019m on familiar ground now and the system opens a ticket.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I head over to the ticket system to see if I could have bypassed this by creating a new ticket directly – but, no, I can view and edit (and close! it helpfully notes) tickets, but can\u2019t create them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew the AI couldn\u2019t help and the AI knew it couldn\u2019t help.  And I have to imagine the company techs that put this in also knew it couldn\u2019t help.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here we are.  Trying desperately to make AI a useful thing instead of a hindrance or a scam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, for one, welcome<\/em> the inevitable rise of our robot overlords.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they aren\u2019t here yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I like solving problems, I don\u2019t like solving them more than once.\u00a0 When I solve a problem, it should stay solved. Which is why I don\u2019t like plumbing.   Or software where I don\u2019t have access to really fix the problem. And today it was software.  We have a program that is normally pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}