Navigating websites and robo chats

[marshas638907]

Am I the only one?!

I've tried to find advocacy through AARP for this. They referred me to my local government advocacy people who at least gave me some sympathy but no satisfaction. Here's the dilemma I presented:

Getting quick answers to simple questions has become about impossible. Websites provide choices of many questions which don't often include the one I'm asking. They link you to other site pages telling you to click on some link that isn't on that page. They provide a chat session that only knows how to assume you want something you don't. You follow more links or try some that might (but don't) lead you to something helpful.

The same thing happens if you're lucky enough to get a phone number. Press this or that number for what you want. If it's not on the list, and luck provides a something else choice a real person has only enough answers for the usual questions, not mine. In this morning's project to investigate a health issue claim, the health provider referred me to the insurer, who referred me back to the health provider.

It can waste hours of our time (not their time so they don't have to pay a real person to answer the initial simple question.

Am I the only one?!

[EricC28201]

What passes for AI these days is (IMHO) a marketing construct that is an insult to my (and your) natural intelligence.
It is really just elaborately over developed database technology. Its energy and water consumption are so gluttonous that it needs a shiny relentlessly maintained facade to hide its bloated hideousness.
The main reason it is described as 'intelligent' is because sometimes it spits out a responses that its developers failed to anticipate.

...I know, I know....Why must I always be so cheerful?

[fffred]

@marshas638907 

I'd say "welcome to the modern world we live in". But I won't. I understand your complaint as I've had this for many years. You bring up a number of different "modes" (eg: telephone, internet, etc). Internet search engines were and are great, indexing all the sites. But sometimes the results are a bit lacking in satisfying a need.

Well, you have probably heard a lot about "AI" (artificial intelligence) over the past year or two. It is here now in commercial form, for better or worse. It did have a bit of an odd introduction, circa fall, 2022 there were articles in magazines about how great the results could be, and more articles about the dangers. It seems that the most likely negative result will be to bury us in even more dregs of drivel and and fake stuff. But! This can be the answer to your problem. AI apps can be very handy and useful for summarizing results for a particular answer.

For example, a Google search returns a list of possibly-related web sites with a brief extract of each; you're on your own to scan that list and see if anything may fit your need. But AI apps will summarize the current "state of the art" into a readable essay and even provides footnote references. This all comes up quite quickly. These results can often give you what you need. My wife and I use this a lot (wife more so).

We use Copilot from Microsoft. You can use for free or pay for a subscription. Similar apps are available from Google, et al. We sort of settled on Copilot (I had conversations with Google's AI a year ago about how "if 1 + 1 = 2, then what does 2 + 2 = ?", and it consistently gave me very philosophical but incorrect answers. sigh).

You can try Copilot at https://copilot.microsoft.com/. It's free a subscription model is available. Microsoft is working on including Copilot interface in their Edge browser and their software applications.

Give it a try!

...for example, go to that link for Copilot and copy/paste "how does a widow apply for social security benefits?". The result is surprisingly good! Brief and informative.

Edit to add: I entered into Copilot "How is Copilot better than a Google search?".  The brief discussion was quite informative!

[fffred]

This is not to say that AI apps are "perfect". Many years ago I worked with two guys from Finland, they came over with their families for 2 years (company merger). I had seen a PBS documentary about how the Finns were "dour and unhappy". That applied to one guy but not the other. Their families fit in just fine in the US. I continued to see articles portraying this image of the Finns as an unhappy people.

Then over the past year I've seen several articles how Finns are the happiest people in the world! So I asked Copilot a number of questions about this, posing the question with a different slant each time. It seemed that the result would generally support the premise of my question ("why are Finns unhappy?" "why are Finns so happy?"). So I lost some degree of confidence in current AI from a research standpoint.

I did do some further research and found that during the1980's when I worked with the two Finnish guys, Finland was going through tough economic times. But now the country is well off. Presumably this could explain the change in view of Finnish happiness. But I am still wary of AI results and would verify them.