The find (XIII)

I recently contacted Sky Digital to solve a network problem. The text exchange started with an AI chatbot, but then moved to a human operator. The CX today website explains this hybrid approach.

“AI excels at handling repetitive tasks, such as resetting passwords or tracking deliveries, which reduces the need for human agents in these areas. However, complex and emotionally charged interactions still require human intervention, as AI struggles to understand nuances and provide empathy. Many companies are adopting a ‘human-in-the-loop’ approach, where AI handles routine tasks but escalates complex cases to human agents.”

I wrote the episode The proxy-AI (XI) before I had experienced a human-in-the loop AI chatbot. I thought it was pure fiction. I continue the story from last week.

Episode 13. The Find

Scase had learned more about Maralina since intercepting her in the lobby. He had also decided that she was the victim of a workplace hoax. She thought she had worked as an AI proxy speaking with human users—but perhaps the users were AI as well. Had Maralina told him that, or had he told her? He couldn’t remember.

He was glad of someone he could talk to who was a human. He learned more about himself from what came out of his own mouth—than what anyone said to him.

He told Maralina what he thought about droids, whether or not she wanted his opinion. He found himself retelling the stories that came from Telo the droid. He delivered the story about counterfactual training data with such clarity it was as if he believed it himself. Did he?

He buried himself in his thoughts, night and day. One morning his reverie in front of the window screen was interrupted by the flash of a drone darting up to the roof. Another followed. Telo had given him the access code for the roof platforms.

He descended to the lobby first. He saw a light in Maralina’s pod on the way down. She was home. He sent the lift back up to the roof terraces. Was he looking out for his neighbour? The lift door opened to the open air of the roof terraces.

He was confronted by a drone.

“Scase! I’m glad it’s you.” He could make out Maralina’s face on the small v-bot screen hovering before him.

“I’m checking the state of the roof platforms.”

“What for?”

The other drone approached and hovered a few metres behind the first, which turned round as if to acknowledge its presence.

“She works for the contractors in charge of the roof garden,” said the Maralina v-bot.

“There is no garden,” Scase said.

The other drone spoke. “There will be. I’m Archura.” She thought she recognised Scase now. “We’ve met,” Archura said.

“I don’t have conversations with drones.” This was not entirely true.

“We are in my pod 22E,” Maralina said through the v-bot interface. “Join us.”

With that the two drones flew down into the landscape. They had done their work in granting Archura and Maralina a moment’s virtual presence on the roof.

Scase was in no hurry. He returned to his pod, showered and collected his thoughts. It was getting harder for him to summon the energy to talk with people. Did others have this problem? He managed to recall someone else’s declining cognition. Was it his mother? Scase had to organise her life in her final years. But this was a different challenge. Rescue from his condition would come from code activation that might restore him. Others had no such option. “Set mood to sociable.” There was no emot to hand.

He found Maralina sitting at a table in her dwelling pod. “I thought there were two of you.”

“She’s on the way. She’s been at the quarries.”

Scase had no trouble dealing with telepresence. Drones, v-bots, EMO wall screens, windows and glasses made the illusion possible. You could be with others and in a remote setting while safe in your residence, a lab, a quarry.

“She’s working with the contractor who will rearrange the terraces.”

“What’s in the quarries?”

“She’s sourcing some of the materials: rocks, soil, plants, that kind of thing. I’m helping out. She got me this dwelling pod after all.”

Scase was in no mind to challenge Maralina’s status as a resident.

“I’ll call to see when she’ll be here.”

Scase was indifferent to whether she would join them. Maralina mentioned that Archura met him once before. “Before what?” he thought.

“There’s no response,” Maralina said. She put the tracker on. It would take a while to find her. The quarry walls sometimes made it tricky to calculate location.

“I saw you going into the quarries before we met.”

“We wanted to see if there was anything we could use on the roof.”

“It’s just rocks.”

“… of different kinds, and soil, and old machinery. People also discard things they no longer want.”

“It’s not safe.” That wasn’t some recollection of local regulations or administrative warnings. He could see it from his window.

“It has low grade security. There are cameras. People use it for recreation. It’s part of a re-wilding project … I’ll call her again.” No response.

“Did you find anything of use?”

“Not for the garden. We saw banners and a makeshift amphitheatre …” But she was distracted. She checked the tracker again.

It returned “Not found.”

Scase marshalled a response he would not have expected of himself. “I’ll summon a drone to search.”

“You can do that?”

“I have contacts.”

He was about to call Telo, when they heard the faint rattle of the lift shaft. There was Archura standing at the door. She released the straps from her backpack. It dropped to the floor with a thud. A corner of folded paper loosened itself from beneath the fastening. She was breathing heavily. “I had to run.”

Note

Featured banner image is generated by ChatGPT in response to this article.