If you’re sick of phoning your bank or internet provider, a bot could soon do the mundane task for you.
A company called Do Not Pay has created an artificial intelligence that mimics your voice to make calls to customer-support lines on your behalf.
In a video shared on Twitter, Do Not Pay founder Joshua Browder uses the tool to get a refund for transfer fees from US bank Wells Fargo.
The company plans to add the bot to its list of automated services, including the option to fight parking tickets and cancel subscriptions, according to tech news site Motherboard.
Do Not Pay, which describes its overarching service as a “robotlawyer”, currently costs £36 per two months as part of an ongoing subscription. It claims to have settled more than one million cases, including previously helping overturn 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York.
In the demo, the bot asks to speak to a representative and then responds to the agent’s questions with a series of simple replies. The conversation is stilted, with the bot taking long pauses before answering, indicating that the software still needs some polish.
Nevertheless, its creators claim it can help with a variety of “legal negotiations”, like phoning an airline to get a refund on a cancelled flight.
“This is the perfect use case for AI,” Browder said in a tweet. “Nobody has time to argue on the phone about $12!”
While the idea of designating Sisyphean admin work to an AI may sound appealing, it also raises questions of privacy and security. In most cases, phoning up customer support will generally require you to answer a series of identifying questions. However, not everyone will feel comfortable handing over such sensitive info, like passwords and financial details, to a bot.
In addition, banks now use voice-identification systems to confirm your identity, which analyses more than 100 aspects of your speech, from your accent and pronunciation to the size and shape of your mouth. It’s difficult to see how this new bot could fool those systems into thinking it was a real person, especially due to its unnatural way of speaking.
According to Browder, Wells Fargo bank lets you override its voice biometrics system by pressing a button on your phone keypad and entering your cash machine pin. Again, that’s info that you’d presumably have to enter yourself or hand over to the bot.
Ultimately, those limitations could restrict the bot to completing low-level or partial tasks that don’t require too much security.
Do Not Pay created the AI tool using a mix of existing and proprietary tech, including Resemble.ai, a site that lets you create an AI voice; GPT-J, an open-source casual language model; and Do Not Pay’s own AI models for the script.
History will be made at a court case next month as a robot lawyer will advise the defendant.
Experts analysed pollen from 250 million years ago, around the time when close to 80% of the planet’s species disappeared.
Complete with a wireless charging case, they're nearly $70 off.
Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective at protecting individuals from severe disease and death, but claims on social media linking the shots to the sudden deaths of doctors in Canada have been shared tens of thousands of times. There is no public data to back the claim and more than a dozen of the doctors mentioned in posts died from unrelated illnesses or accidents."80 doctors in Canada between the ages of 25 and 55 have died in the last 60 days," says text above a video shared in a December 21
In Paris climate activists spray-painted the Ministry of Ecology in the latest protest attack on government buildings over what they see as a lack of action on the environment
LAST year, scientists made an artificial star. It was a tiny star and it lasted less than a billionth of a second, but it might just change how we all live.
Marcus Rashford scored for the fifth straight game as Manchester United beat Everton 3-1 in the FA Cup third round on Friday, heaping the pressure on beleaguered boss Frank Lampard.
It's an historic mission, with the eyes of the world on Cornwall.
One of the industries targeted by ministers is the railways, which was hit by another strike on Friday by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport.
Train drivers have been offered an 8pc pay rise to break the rail strike deadlock.
The ballot across England begins on Monday, but the BMA urged the Health Secretary to meet with doctors and negotiate a solution to avoid strikes.
The chief executive of Channel 4 has denied it is a Left-wing version of GB News and defended its often-critical coverage of the Government after winning a battle against privatisation. Alex Mahon insisted the station did not give too much credence to Left-wing voices, adding that there were a “wide range of views in the newsroom”.
Updates next week from Britain's biggest retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer are expected to confirm that while Christmas was not the disaster that some had feared, consumer demand is set to weaken in 2023, denting profit. Ahead of Christmas, European retailers fretted that the key trading period could be the worst in at least a decade. But in Britain, despite UK inflation running at 10.7% and consumer confidence close to record lows, retailers that have reported so far on festive sales, including clothing retailer Next, fast food chain Greggs and discounters B&M and Aldi UK have performed well.
The FTSE 100 has closed up 66 points to 7,699, hitting a 3-year high as it edges closer towards the all-time high of 7,900. Gas prices fell 20% in the final week of December, according to new data released by the Office for National Statistics this morning, amid unusually mild temperatures at the start of the new year. Meanwhile, mortgage lender Halifax today revealed the average UK house price dropped 1.5% in December.
The Global Automated Poultry Farm Market size was estimated at USD 239. 22 million in 2021 and expected to reach USD 267. 88 million in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 12. 23% to reach USD 478.New York, Jan. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Automated Poultry Farm Market Research Report by Type, Equipment, Region – Global Forecast to 2027 – Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" – https://www.reportlinker.com/p06336359/?utm_source=GNW 17 million
Soft Tissue Repair Market Soft Tissue Repair Market Dublin, Jan. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The "Soft Tissue Repair Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Product; By Application; By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.The global soft tissue repair market size is expected to reach USD 20.28 billion by 2030, according to a new study. The report gives a detailed insight into current market dynamics and provides analysi
spinal-muscular-atrophy-treatment-market-size.jpg spinal-muscular-atrophy-treatment-market-size.jpg Dublin, Jan. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The "Global Spinal Muscular Atrophy Treatment Market Size, Share & Industry Trends Analysis Report By Type (Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4), By Route of Administration, By Treatment Type (Drug and Gene Therapy), By Drug Type, By Regional Outlook and Forecast, 2022 – 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.The Global Spinal Muscu
The Standard Chartered share price has jumped this week — and over the past year. Shareholder Christopher Ruane digs into why as he considers his next move. The post What’s going on with the Standard Chartered share price? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.
Global Biopesticides Market 2023-2027 The analyst has been monitoring the biopesticides market and is forecast to grow by $5666. 63 mn during 2022-2027, accelerating at a CAGR of 16.New York, Jan. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Biopesticides Market 2023-2027" – https://www.reportlinker.com/p01592853/?utm_source=GNW 27% during the forecast period. Our report on the biopesticides market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecas
While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to cut NHS waiting times, hospitals are suffering an exodus of its most experienced staff.
