Credit: Regi Cris via Shutterstock.com If you ask Meta’s new AI agent to call a hairdresser’s salon, the person on the other end of the line might not be an AI. According to an exclusive report by Reuters on Tuesday, citing internal company postings, Meta has been testing a “human concierge” for Muse, with contractors taking over some of the calls placed through the agent. Last week Meta informed its staff about the trial, having previously launched the calling feature for Muse. For half of Meta’s employees, the ‘human agent calls’ option was enabled, with an opt-out for those who did not wish to participate. “Muse is now able to hand requests to a trained agent, who places the call and works it through,” the statement said, as reported by Reuters. The posts indicated that some employees had warned that sensitive information could end up with the call-center contractors even though no one had intended it to happen.
Daniel Roberts, a Meta spokesperson, told Reuters that employee feedback had been “overwhelmingly positive” and that the purpose of the test was to help shape the safety and privacy protections before its public release. He added that Meta would “only roll it out when it’s ready and with the proper disclosures”, although he didn’t specify what those disclosures would be or who would get them. Muse was launched in the United States on September 8 as an agent that sends out emails, makes purchases, and books travel on the user’s behalf. Its calling feature forwards requests to phone businesses so they can book a haircut, check stock, or obtain quotes, and then provides a transcript.
The app has reached 2.5 million downloads, according to Sensor Tower data. At the time of its launch, Meta placed a strong emphasis on privacy, stating that each agent operates in its own virtual machine. While these statements refer to where the software runs, they say nothing regarding a person using a headset. The company has already been in this situation.
Back in 2015, Facebook started testing M, a Messenger assistant supported by human ‘trainers’. It remained within a limited beta test and was closed down in 2018, since it had never achieved more than about 30% automation. Meta offers Muse as an agent who works on your behalf around the clock and has had assistance from someone on some calls.
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