Depradations of the Internet, or,

[ellen_kushner]

oh my god, Gary Shteyngart was right about everything!

Alex: Hi, I'm Alex, your continental.com virtual expert. Type in a short question, keyword or phrase below, and I can help you find the information on our Web site.
You Asked: I just typed the question in the site's box before I got this popup. Please tell your tech folks that it didn't go

Comments

[heartofoshun]

That is a lot more coherent than most of the exchanges I have with real people!

[brewsternorth]

I was going to say, it reminds me of a recent blog post by someone I know about similarly incoherent conversations held in real life or over the internet with actual people - and from the comments to that post, it was a common phenomenon...

[brewsternorth]

Blog post in question.

[elswhere1]

lol at how they have an automated almost-human-sounding automated response for anything that mentions tech.

Though the fish without water analogy isn't quite right, since without technology Alex wouldn't even *exist* not just lie all floppy and dying on the shore. But I guess it's pointless to argue semantics with a bunch of code.

[ellen_kushner]

But I'd sure like to see you try!

[movingfinger]

Does typing AGENT in all caps get you a human?

[emilytheslayer]

Or cussing, which is another thing that tends to work on phone systems.

[movingfinger]

Actually it's not the cussing, it's the way you say it. Many airlines' AI systems have software for recognizing tone of voice and will cut in with a human when you become audibly exasperated. The phone companies can't do this, because all their customers are exasperated.

[emilytheslayer]

That's interesting. A few years ago a friend of mine was on hold with the power company in a small town in Illinois, and her teenager managed to get through a to a person fastest by cussing. Very calmly and methodically, but cussing.

[la_marquise_de_]

Headdesk. It would be an airline, too.