A computer just fooled my arse.

I typically don't answer calls with area codes that aren't Florida or Georgia anymore, as 95% of my customers are from either state...but I had some dude in here talking my ear off about what a great artist he is for 15 minutes, and I gladly accepted the easy "out."

Answered the phone with my normal greeting...nothing. Then said "Hello?"

Very real sounding voice on the other end: "Hi, is this the owner?"

Me: "Yes, this is Mike. How can I help you?"

Voice: "This is John from "Imperial" (There is a supplier in my business by that name, so I figured it was a rep.) How are you doing today sir?"

Me: "I'm fine, thanks, and you?"

Voice: "I'm doing very well. Thank you for asking! I know you're very busy but I'd like to take a few minutes to tell you about a new small business loan...."

Click.

I was shocked at how well timed and accurate the automated responses were. I feel like I just got "Archered."

Archered, nice. Would have been awesome if you'd heard, "Pppffffft.. Haha! It's a machine idiot!"

Voice recognition software, I bet. Surprising it's not been rolled out to more phone spammers.

Dr. Hess wrote: Voice recognition software, I bet. Surprising it's not been rolled out to more phone spammers.

+1 ever listen to Siri or Google phones talk back to you?

sure it was a machine? some people just talk like robots because people hang up on them all day..

Had a couple of those myself and yes it is surprising how real it sounds... at first. It saddens me to think of all the effort that went into the recognition programs etc that could have been used to better humanity's condition instead.

Yep, I had one of those a few days ago at work. Wierded me out. I told the guys, "I just had a conversation with a robot I couldn't see."

novaderrik wrote: sure it was a machine? some people just talk like robots because people hang up on them all day..

Pretty sure. Usually the UNDERPAID (jokes) minimum wage dude in the cube sounds like "UUUUUUUh Uhloe? UUUUUUUUUHHHH yeyaah. UUUUUUUUHHHHHH Hi, could I speak wit a mistuuuh oh misssuuuhz (blank)"

"They haven't owned this shop in over 10 years. Is there something I can help you with?"

"UUUUUUUUUUHHHHH Yuh UUUUUUUUHHHH. Is diss duh ownuh?"

Click.

Conquest351 wrote: Archered, nice. Would have been awesome if you'd heard, "Pppffffft.. Haha! It's a machine idiot!"

"But don't be shy, machines need love, too."

One of the funniest lines from The Terminator.

I can't find the particular article, I just read it. Basically it was informing us of a freakin super computer attempting to mimic the processes of the human brain. It could only mimic like .083% or something like that of what the human brain could do. Your brain actually fooled you not the computer.

Not the exact article I read but similar http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-05/science/41091550_1_synapses-neurons-simulation

Yeah, but you don't need to mimic the brain....you need to mimic a human's speech well enough to get them to interact with you