That chatbot from 2016 that thought my name was 'Guest' for 3 months

Back around 2016 I was using this early customer service AI for a small online shop I ran. It was supposed to handle basic questions. But every time I logged in, it greeted me as 'Guest' even though my account had my name right there. I reported it 4 times over 3 months. Finally one support guy said 'yeah that model can't pull from the user database, it's a known limitation.' I just laughed. Compared to stuff like ChatGPT now, it's wild how far we've come. Anyone else remember a dumb AI moment that seems funny looking back?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles_sanchez21d ago

Yeah nora_dixon you hit it right with "Unknown Destination" - that's basically the same level of broken. I like how you called it charming in hindsight because yeah, it kind of is, but back then I was definitely ready to throw something. At least with that travel bot you had a destination, even if it was unknown. My bot calling me "Guest" for 3 months felt like it was passive-aggressively telling me I didn't matter. Makes you realize how much we take for granted now that chatbots can actually read your name without needing a software update.

nora_dixon21d ago

Oh man, that's honestly so frustrating, I feel your pain. You're telling me you filed four separate reports and nobody thought to just say 'hey, it can't read your name' right from the start? That's the kind of dumb AI experience that makes you wonder how anyone thought it was ready for customers. I had a similar thing with an old travel booking bot that kept trying to confirm my flight to 'Unknown Destination' even after I typed the city name three times. It's almost charming to look back on now, but in the moment you just want to throw your laptop out the window.

sandrat2416d ago

Remember when car GPS units first came out and you'd have one that insisted you were on a road that didn't exist anymore? I had one that kept telling me to turn left into a cornfield for about two months before the map update fixed it. Guess some things never change, just now the tech is fancier but the brokenness is the same.