Temp worker kept asking my AI to write her apology emails

Last Tuesday at our Phoenix warehouse, a temp named Dana saw me demoing our new chatbot and asked if it could draft an apology to her supervisor for clocking in late three times this week... she wasn't joking, she wanted it to sound sorry and also explain her bus route was unreliable. I told her that feels like dodging the real conversation, and she said the robot wouldn't judge her like a human would. Has anyone else had someone treat AI as a shield for basic accountability, and where do you draw that line?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

sandra_anderson227d ago

The part about "the robot wouldn't judge her like a human would" is really the whole thing right there. I get why that feels safer, nobody likes feeling ashamed, but the judgment isn't coming from the supervisor anyway, it's coming from the fact that she was late three times. An AI email doesn't make the lateness go away, it just makes it easier to hit send without ever sitting with the awkwardness. And honestly that awkwardness is the point, it's what makes you actually fix the bus route problem or talk to your boss about switching shifts. If she lets a chatbot do the hard part, she never has to figure out why it keeps happening. So the line for me is when the AI is helping you avoid the conversation instead of helping you have it. Write the email yourself, even a bad one, because that's you taking it on.

3