Starting Sunday, conversations with chatbots, AI-generated photos or videos, and AI receptionists must immediately make clear that the system is artificial intelligence rather than a human.The requirement comes from the European Union's AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive law regulating the development and use of AI systems. The law took effect two years ago and is now being phased in. The stricter transparency rules that took effect Sunday are one of those stages.
My dad died last year, and when I called the funeral home we’d picked out for him to come and pick up his body, the answering service was AI. It had the fake typing and background noises, and when I said dad’s name the AI read it back to me for confirmation as “Bob common name, Smith common name”. Like WTF? I was pretty much in shock from this and too flummoxed to tell it to fuck off and call a different funeral home. However mad you think this would make you in that situation, trust me it was worse.
That’s a really inappropriate use of any type of non human communication. Awful.