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Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

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Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#121

Post by onemiketwelve »

rainbowzootsuit wrote: post #46
RajT88 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had this happen in a sense. I once booked a flight to meet my then-fiancee in Florida on vacation. Work travel came up unexpectedly, and I booked my work travel from ORD > SFO > TPA. Before I made that booking, I called the airline specifically to ask them if skipping the ORD > TPA leg of my personal travel was going to cause me problems. The agent confirmed, twice that it would not. This was a lie. Buried in…

In the US at least once that notification that "the call may be recorded for quality assurance " happens, both parties have been notified and you're good to record regardless of the state you are in. What do you use for recording your calls?

Is that actually true? I always thought that was one of those internet sayings that had no basis in law, ie one party, two party protections etc...

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#122

Post by martopix »

frud wrote: post #111

The real story here is that Air Canada's lawyers argued, among other things, that the chatbot was a separate and independent legal entity from Air Canada and therefore Air Canada was not obligated to honor the made up policy. In other words, this was possibly the first historical argument made in a court that AI's are sentient and not automated chattel.

Or maybe it simply means that it's a service offered by another company

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#123

Post by dheera »

passwordoops wrote: post #105
dheera wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OR they could just honor what the chatbot said and forget the legal battle. The chatbot's error cost them what, $200? And it probably replaced at $100000/year employee?

You think front-line support staff account for $100k in compensation?

Total overhead. Compensation + benefits + payroll taxes + all the per-employee real estate and equipment to support them on the job

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#124

Post by dtjb »

pajamanaut wrote: post #112
dtjb wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few front-line agents have deep knowledge about their company's products or services. They trace their finger through some branches on a flowchart then dictate from a knowledgebase.

Flowcharts are reliable

Agreed, and I think following flowchart-type logic is within today's AI capabilities. This thread is full of people getting inaccurate responses from humans. I think when it comes to accuracy, a well-trained LLM likely beats the status quo of high-churn low-paid employees following a rote diagram.

Of course there should always be a way to reach a human, a senior agent with actual knowledge that can be applied in subjective ways to solve more complex problems.

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#126

Post by rwbhn »

floatrock wrote: post #36

Here's the real punchline: > Experts told the Vancouver Sun that Air Canada may have succeeded in avoiding liability in Moffatt's case if its chatbot had warned customers that the information that the chatbot provided may not be accurate. Here's a glimpse into our Kafka-esque AI-powered future: every corporate lawyer is now making sure any customer service request will be gated by a chatbot containing a disclaimer li…

Part of disclaimer at irs.gov for their interactive assistant: "Answers do not constitute written advice in response to a specific written request of the taxpayer within the meaning of section 6404(f) of the Internal Revenue Code."

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#127

Post by recursive »

saintfire wrote: post #109
dheera wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OR they could just honor what the chatbot said and forget the legal battle. The chatbot's error cost them what, $200? And it probably replaced at $100000/year employee?

I would assume the average salary of a customer support worker is dramatically lower than that. The point is still valid regardless.

Salary is always lower than the employer's total cost to employ, so that tracks.

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#128

Post by jerf »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #60

The real desire here is to get it to promise a lifetime of free service. edit: arguing that the chatbot is a separate legal entity is a wild claim. It would imply to me that air canada could sue the ai company for damages if it makes bad promises; not that air canada is excused from paying the customer.

This is pretty close: https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/ai-blunder-chat-bot-sel...

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#129

Post by ncallaway »

Sayrus wrote: post #120
_thisdot wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t they link to sources? Like Perplexity.ai or Arc Search does. I don’t even need it to tell me anything. Links are all that is relevant. Google Analytics on the Web does something similar. You can ask questions in the search box and it takes you to a relevant page. “Can I get refund on my flight 2 hours in advance?” “Here is a link to refund policies w.r.t time before flight”

Air Canada's chatbot returned sources along with its answer. Quotes from another article[1]. > Air Canada’s argument was that because the chatbot response included a link to a page on the site outlining the policy correctly, Moffat should’ve known better. [1] https://techhq.com/2024/02/air-canada-refund-for-customer-wh...

Yes, but:

"The answer is yes, you may receive a refund within 2 hours of departure. More details are here: (link)"

is _entirely_ different from

"Our refund policy is here: (link)"

Re: Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up

#130

Post by pier25 »

Did Air Canada use a chatGPT for their legal defense?

Also:

> Air Canada essentially argued that "the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions,"

What does this mean?

That the chatbot was provided by a third party hence they are responsible for the content provided?

Or that, literally, a chat bot can be considered a legal entity?

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