Don’t get bot hurt.

Bot Talk

The bot knows a department

The government has a new front door. This one lets you ask a question.

President Donald Trump unveiled America.gov Tuesday, an AI-powered site intended to help people find government information and services.

The idea is to explain what you need instead of figuring out which agency handles it.

Because “please consult the appropriate department” is less helpful when finding the appropriate department is the problem.

In other news, the bot also got a promotion. In title, not pay.

Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “artificial intelligence” and “AI” in official communications and other nonstatutory documents, where legally permitted. Previously issued regulations, contracts and historical documents don’t require changes.

For now, SI uses the existing legal definition of AI. That differs from the technical concept of superintelligence, which IBM describes as a hypothetical system with intelligence beyond human abilities.

The bot didn’t even have to update its résumé.

Human × Bot

Please don’t make me learn your system

You need to fix a bill, apply for a benefit or change a reservation.

First, please select a department.

Is this an account question? A billing question? An application question?

It’s an “I need help” question.

Organizations arrange services around how they work. The rest of us arrive with whatever is happening in our lives. Finding where those two things meet becomes our homework.

Apparently, needing help means finding your own way through the maze.

Conversational AI could take on some of that work. We explain the problem. The bot helps figure out where it belongs.

The U.K.’s GOV.UK Chat offers an example worth watching. The AI assistant helps people find answers in government guidance.

When the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group tested it with tax questions in May, it got some things right and some things wrong.

So the bot can help you find your way through the system. It still needs to know when it’s out of its depth.

Final Bot Thought

A friendly bot that sends us in circles is still a phone tree, just with better manners.

We shouldn’t need to learn the whole system to get one thing done.

Let the bot do that homework.