kokanee

I recently called an upscale restaurant to order a pizza, and my call was answered by an LLM. There was no disclosure; it was just a young woman's voice saying "Hi you've reached <business name>, how can I help?" It wasn't until I noticed the unusual delays and ever-so-subtly robotic speech cadence that I realized I wasn't talking to a human.

This felt crappy. It felt like I was being tricked; that this company wanted me to think I was speaking with a human. To think you're speaking with a human when you aren't is embarrassing, and in the process of recognizing that the voice isn't real there is an inevitable moment of awkward self-consciousness when you aren't sure whether to speak as if there is another person listening or not.

If you don't want to pay people to answer your phones, use a phone tree. Don't insult your customers by trying to trick them into thinking they're getting real service.