Shoppers will soon have the right to request human assistance over an AI chatbot, under new EU rules being implemented by the Department of Finance. 

The proliferation of AI chatbots online may have freed up time and money for online retailers, but many shoppers have come to loathe their repetitive answers and lack of awareness. 

Soon, shoppers will have a right to speak to someone over the phone instead. 

On Lunchtime Live, listener Garrett said he much refers to speak to a person than a chatbot. 

“I always feel that you can work through the details and get to the nub of the issue faster than working with an AI system,” he said. 

“They may have their place, but once you start getting complicated or outside of the norm, they have a tendency to just break down and fail.” 

Also on the programme, TU Dublin lecturer Damian O’Reilly said the problem with chatbots AI means they are smarter than ever. 

“Traditional chatbots that we've seen over the years is the rule based,” he explained. 

“They don't adapt to changes in questions that you ask to give you the same answer all the time - and they don't learn, they're scripted.

“But AI has now changed all of that.”

However, he warned that at this point in time, they are still less intelligent than a properly trained human. 

“Oxford basically did a scenario based study with experts, doctors, and the chatbot, the AI chatbot was 95% correct when it was given the same details as for the patient,” he said. 

“But when you ask the patients to put information in themselves, the chatbot results, the results actually went down to 35%.

“So, it depends on what you're putting into it is what you're getting out of it.”

Main image: A call centre. Picture by: Alamy.com.