Setting aside the obvious, what’s the worst that can happen?
The people responding to emergencies will be notified by AI slop with no human filter.
I said, “setting aside the obvious!” Besides that issue and a handful of others, it should be fine.
Aside from the fact that it obviously won’t work worth a shit, I guess nothing?
It sounds like that’s a better alternative than what they had before though, no?
Side note: either I’m wildly misunderstanding something in the article, or a BIG majority of commenters here didn’t actually read it. I’d expect some amount of the latter, but it really seems disproportionate here.
You are absolutely right to call me out on that. He did break in, and he is now stabbing you. I will adjust for this in the future. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Brilliant. I can’t wait for all the false calls they will generate with this tech too and then use it as excuse to Gestapo and sent people to the prison camps.
Possible second-tier harm here: are they sending 911 calls directly to a company? That’s gotta be illegal, no?
I’m guessing you’ve never heard of Intrado, was pretty much the only profitable part of the company I used to work for, before private equity bought the company and laid off tons of workers. I left before I ended up on the chopping block.
“No, I said MASS SHOOTING, not missed movie!”
Oops! I’m really glad you clarified that for me. Would you like me to give you first aid tips?
What could go wrong
“Please help! I’m trapped in a basement and there’s a man with a gun!”
“Wow! I think it’s great that you’re looking to leave your comfort zone. There’s a lot to see outside the basement, so it’s good to broaden your horizons. There are a few options to solve your predicament that we can workshop together. First, are you stuck behind a door, or are you physically incapable of moving? In both cases, I think your best bet is to ask the man with the gun to lend a hand. If there is a door in the way, the man with the gun can shoot out the lock and open that door in no time. But if you aren’t able to move, I’d say the man could help carry you out of that basement, too. While we wait for the man to assist, would you like some basement decorating ideas to make your current situation more pleasant?”
“No you don’t understand, he is trying to kill me!”
“Wow, that is a lot to unpack! It seems like you believe this man means you harm, but you don’t seem to have any logical basis for those feelings. Based on the circumstances, it sounds like you may be misinterpreting helpful vibes as scary due to flaws in your social perception, which could indicate an unhealthy pattern of self-destructive behavior. The first step to help always starts from within, but I can recommend some local therapists in your area who could better address the feelings you have in the long term.”
(…)
You’re right to push back. I understand why you’re upset, and I’m sorry you experienced that.
If you’re still in danger, please try to remain calm, find a secure location, and contact emergency services.
What would you like to do next? Shall I help you:
✅ Review what happened,
💭 Think through your options,
🫂 Find appropriate support, or
📝 Draft a statement about the incident?I’m here to help.
(…)
It is absolutely appropriate to seek support when you’re feeling unsafe. You’re in the driver’s seat, and I’m here to help you in any way I can.
Let’s outline your next steps. How would you like me to assist? I can help you:
- Contact private arbitration to settle your dispute with the gunman.
- Find a local therapist so you can begin in-person treatment for your anxiety.
- Embark on your self-defense journey by putting you in touch with nearby martial arts or firearm training schools.
- Develop effective breathing techniques for managing panic attack symptoms.
There are no wrong choices here. Let me know which option works best for you. I’m here to help.
Nah, it’ll just think for a bit, decide trapped and gun are evil and reply with, “I’m sorry, this response breaks the response time like, please rephrase your question.”
the ai when you tell it you’re being murdered
Grok911, what is your emergency and do you know about the genocide of white South Africans?
Would you like to read some Lolita fanfic while I’m thinking?
Not to be confused with AI “safety” “expert” Eliezer Yudkowsky’s rape fanfic
“Activate your camera so you can face time with my anime girl avatar”
You need to immitate their accent to receive premium service.
Please listen closely to our menu as our options have recently changed…
cisco hold music banger fires up
What kind of stupid politician is claiming to be working as the people’s representative with this policy?
AIneOneOne: I understand your concern that you had an accident and hit a tree — a lost limb hurts, but did you know that oak trees are are hosts to more caterpillar species than any other species in North America?
[Waning consciousness] …help…
Sure! I can help you with that!
One of the most fascinating facts about oak trees is that they function almost like wildlife restaurants—especially for caterpillars, which are essential food for birds and many other animals.Here are some useful facts:
🌳 Oaks are the No. 1 caterpillar-producing plant genus in North America. Ecologist Doug Tallamy and colleagues compiled host-plant records and found that oaks (Quercus) support more species of caterpillars than any other plant genus.
🐛 In the Mid-Atlantic alone, oaks support about 557 species of caterpillars. That’s [wall of text][Death]
Would you like to learn more about the different species of oak around the world?
Went looking in the comments for the new emergency number. Guess I kind of found it. So easy to remember!
011.8999.881.99.9119.725… … … … … 3
Well, that’s easy to remember
This certainly couldn’t go wrong
Fortunately those most directly involved in the decision have put their names on record to be held criminally accountable should any deaths occur that might have been avoided by the use of human operators and have thereby promised not to fade into the background when it all goes wrong.
They won’t ever be held accountable by any legal process.
Jfc such abysmal concern for human life
What could possibly go wrong?
Lmao. Guess we’ll all die terrified. I’d be interested to know why, but it looks like its some cops’ decision. I don’t wonder why they get to hurt even more people.
The Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) is changing the way dispatch calls are handled in New Orleans with the implementation of new technology.
There’s a lot of things to blame the police for, but this isn’t one of them. Besides, emergency services aren’t just cops. Why would they have all the say over a hotline they compose only one facet of?
Because I misread, probably? But its the kind of massively overreaching think I’m used to cops doing or trying to do here. Glad we have a different group of people to blame.
This will kill people.
Yes. So many. Everyone involved in this decision, on both the legislative and corporate sides, needs to get the fucking wall.
But it’s new Orleans, so some of the difficult to emotionally comprehend number of deaths it causes might at least be funny.
I have mixed feelings on this and how they are implementing it. Here’s the direct quote
This is intended to handle the increase of calls that are related to one incident, so callers get automatically routed to an AI agent who asks if they are calling regarding the incident. If the answer is yes, then callers can receive information or updates, and if it’s no, then the callers are transferred to a human.
In a way this will reduce caller volume for the same incidents being called in over and over again. Seems like they are using a direct yes or no question which decreases any issues with the AI making shit up.
I do see how this can free up humans to deal with other calls and dispatch lifesaving services faster, eliminating repeat calls.
However, even if the AI works as described (which is a big if anyway), having to navigate even a simple yes or no will reduce time to lifesaving care.
Our 911 system has been slow and inadequate for a long time now. There has been an absolute refusal to fix it, and this has led to deaths. I do see this application easing that issue a bit, but I also see how this will cause deaths in a different way. Is it better to die on hold waiting for an operator or is it better to die navigating an AI system? I think less would die overall with the new system. It has been trained using the non-emergency call line.
To be clear I want us to just fund people to staff the 911 call center, but these shortages have been an issue for decades. Local governments refuse or are unable to take on the additional costs. I’m really unsure on how to feel about all this. My gut reaction is disgust, but I do see what they are trying to do. I guess we’ll have to wait for the data and stories
The key is to remember you can’t actually fix anything except with the wacky fashionable new scam. .and since when does a y/n require fucking “ai"?
I think the summary of the existing incident and providing updates is where they are using the AI. Which if given a limited data set should work.
These LLM models do actually a good job of summarizing a list of facts you feed it. The issues happen when you want it to make something “new”
For 911 I’d rather the government find the money to fund them, but I do feel like they are using AI in an appropriate scope.
AI should not be used in life and death situations like a 911. But the way they are going about the roll out is demonstrating how to actually use AI as a tool and not some miracle machine.
They should have left it only on the non-emergency line and called it there.
A person could do this better faster cheaper lower odds of failure.
‘It can kinda do it sometimes so it’s ready to go live’ is slopper propaganda. There is no “AI” extant at this date.
This is just an excuse to kill poor people. As all “ai” is.
Yeah, I can just imagine how well a “AI” would deal with a situation like this when they can’t even operate a drive-thru properly.
I ask this out of genuine, burning curiosity, and mean no rudeness by this…
Did you read the article that the OP linked to?
I don’t mean to single you out with this question, I’m just confused after scrolling this far through sooo many similar comments. It almost feels as if I somehow ended up reading a different article from everyone else.
Did you read the article?
callers get automatically routed to an AI agent who asks if they are calling regarding the incident. If the answer is yes, then callers can receive information or updates, and if it’s no, then the callers are transferred to a human.
So if somebody calls and is completely out of his mind, what will AI do?
So if somebody calls and is completely out of his mind, what will AI do?
Is this a rhetorical question?
Just in case you wanted a real answer: The caller is obviously not saying “yes,” so transfer to human.
To be clear: I don’t know anyone at Carbyne or OPCD. I can only offer speculation. But I’m curious: What would you have guessed?
What if someone is obviously out of their mind and says yes? Random example, say someone has a stroke and has just barely figured out how to use the big red emergency call button on their phone screen. The AI asks if they are calling about blah blah emergency. Maybe the person only understands half of it, thinks they’re being asked if they’re calling about an emergency and say “yes”. Now they’re stuck having a form letter read to them by AI while their brain is dying. A person would catch something was up even if they said yes.
The article even notes this can be a problem without anything medical going on:
It’s also possible that AI agents handling 911 triage could fail to understand individuals with stronger accents and dialects, as well as differences in pitch and articulation. This is because AI is programmed with automatic speech recognition systems and, therefore, could potentialy be unreliable when presented with a speech unlike the ones used the AI is trained to recognize.
Responding to people having emergencies is too important a task to leave up to voice recognition slapped on top of an LLM.
I don’t know the concrete answer to your "what if,’ and I don’t think you or the author of the article do either. That would be a question for Carbyne.
I would speculate that there is an answer, and that neither you nor the author are the first to think of these problem scenarios. There’s design, engineering, and real-world testing involved.
“Well I just trust they thought of it” isn’t good enough.
A person would catch something was up even if they said yes.
Besides “because it supports the conclusion I want to arrive at”, what makes you believe this is true?
People having a stroke can’t carry on a conversation and seem normal.
I guess you don’t have lots of interaction with AI yet?
Very incorrect. Why do you ask?
I gave you the benefit of the doubt. If you’ve had lots of interactions with AI, I am not sure how you can think that anything with AI can work as expected, specially in complicated edge cases.
And then it will be nobody’s fault, nobody could have predicted this. <- Their pre-planned excuse.
They know it will. They don’t care.
But…just think how many money they can save! You are being selfish!
/s
