Keep Your Uncanny Valley Out of My Lizard Brain
I intended to write about something else today, but had such a strange experience this morning that I still can’t quite shake it. I had set for myself the mundane to-do of calling a doctor’s office to cancel an appointment. I’ve gone to this provider’s office for years and was expecting the usual phone tree to reach the receptionist.
Instead, my call was immediately answered by a human-sounding AI agent. That, in itself, was not so unusual: removing the human from front office interactions increasingly is a sign of the times (sigh). The AI agent dutifully took my information, verified my details in the patient system, and confirmed all of my responses back to me. It was never stated, but certain traits in the “personality” of the agent made it clear to me that this was not a human receptionist. But the entire time, something else was itching the back of my brain uncomfortably (the amygdala, perhaps?). I finally realized what it was: subtle noises had been added to the AI call to make it sound like there was a small hive of activity going on around the AI agent as it talked to me. There was the ringing of distant phones, indistinct chatter from other “co-workers,” and other barely audible background noises. It triggered that “uncanny valley” feeling one gets from an almost, but not perfect, human simulacrum.
I’m no Luddite. I use AI and other technology every day to improve the efficiency of my marketing workflow, to perform research, and to create, and I wouldn’t give that up. I’m used to voice agents collecting information over the phone and chatbots to do the same on web pages. But somehow this felt like a bridge too far, a digital Rubicon we should not cross. Perhaps it stems from a sense of outrage that someone felt the need to insert that office chatter to try to “fool” me into thinking the agent was human? Why not have the agent chat with me over a quiet background? It was like a sitcom’s editor inserting a laugh track to tell me where I should find humor in a scene. I didn’t need it.
Healthcare may be one of the places where this technology replaces the traditional phone tree first and most completely (who loves navigating those trees anyway, just to make a mistake and have to back out or call again?) But if vendors are going to insert “generative environments” into customer service AI agent calls, I feel like we deserve a disclaimer: “This call is enhanced with AI technology.” Call it an audio watermark. And perhaps laws like the California AI Transparency Act (SB 942) will ultimately give us something like that. I hope so. My amygdala will thank you.
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