From a "Sources Sought" notice posted by the Social Security Administration:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is conducting market research/sources sought to help determine the availability and technical capability of qualified businesses providing an artificial intelligence interface that can provide customer service in a conversational manner. This is not a request for quotations or proposals, and we do not guarantee the issuance of a solicitation as a result of this notice. We will use the information we obtained from this research for planning purposes only. ...
SSA needs to incorporate technology to supplement our first level customer support interactions with automated and intelligent self-serve options our customers expect. We want to go beyond a static FAQs knowledge base, and interact with customers in a conversational manner using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This technology should be capable of undergoing both supervised and unsupervised learning for continuously improving its support capability.
The technology should be able to remember actions and contextual details during conversations, and leverage the captured information for suitable responses to other users, as appropriate.A suitable, user-friendly interface for business experts who will be involved in supervised learning is essential. The interface should allow the experts to define and refine business rules, responses and response patterns, for example.The technology should include tools that allow testing of user inputs and intent as well as conversation flow.The new technology cannot require extensive training for proficiency. It must provide flexibility in offering technicians with a broad range of skillsets the opportunity to successfully share and complete tasks for the public.This technology should support seamless transition of conversation history of authenticated users across channels and sessions.The technology should recognize when it has reached its limitations with customer support, and offer transferring the customer to a live agent.The technology should provide appropriate administrative functions to manage users and access for testing, refinements and deployment. In addition, it should include a comprehensive analytics capability.The technology must continue to give our customers the service they have come to expect to complete business with SSA accurately and quickly, at any time, in any location, and on any platform. ...
Given that government contracts usually go to the low bidder, SSA will probably end up with an "intellectually challenged" AI.
ReplyDeleteOf course, now that I think about it, such an AI could probably provide service at least in line with what you get whenever you call 1-800-dial-an-idiot.
Finding any intelligence, even if its artificial, within the SSA would be a nice change.
ReplyDeleteHow much longer am I doomed to read lemmings writing about pattern recognition software and calling it "AI"?
ReplyDeleteMy god, Jim, can you imagine the number of incorrect overpayments that are gonna be caused by claimants reporting work to poorly-programmed AIs, which then spits back inaccurate info in reply?!
ReplyDeleteThere are national-representative firms that use AI software to draft pre-hearing briefs to ALJs before disability hearings, and the end result is usually pretty awful. I can't imagine SSA AI-CRs are going to be any more coherent or legally accurate.
Almost every technology that SSA has embraced other tried has either had to be scrapped, rollout terrible, or bug prone. And consider non adaptable employees. Good luck.
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