Having passed SATs, graduate records exams, and medical licensing exams, and solving obscure coding challenges in seconds, generative AI chatbots have proven to possess astounding capabilities. However, their success is not foolproof, and they still struggle with truly replicating human conversation.
Generative AI chatbots, powered by large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, are lacking in human nuance identification and critical-thinking skills, which are essential in scenarios such as providing financial advice or handling personal health. OpenAI has pointed out the difficulty in fixing hallucinations and ethical decision-making due to the absence of a clear source of truth in the training data.
Nevertheless, with the use of explicit prompts, carefully governed training data, and validation techniques specific to each use case, the day when reliable human-like interactions can be achieved may not be too distant. Let’s explore how teams using AI can work towards delivering more human-like conversations in real time.
Determine Human Intent
For generative AI chatbots to provide relevant and helpful responses, they must understand and accurately address user intent. Ambiguous user questions were less problematic with traditional chatbots that offered users a limited “menu tree” of questions. However, generative AI models are freeform, and understanding sarcasm, irony, or humor requires an understanding of social context.
Explicit prompts are critical to enhance the effectiveness of chatbots, and one solution is to ask the user two or three questions before generating a response to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Understand the AI’s Knowledge Set
Connecting AI chatbots to the most appropriate knowledge set is another strategy to enhance the human-like nature of interactions. For example, integrating vertical-specific AI datasets for industries like healthcare can provide specialist knowledge that directly impacts the AI model’s performance.
Within the LLM provider, there are also variations of the dataset, allowing companies to use advanced and broader training data sets for more in-depth responses when necessary.
Evaluate Your Use Case
The success of AI in replicating human interactions depends on the context in which it is used. Human intervention and oversight are critical in highly regulated industries or scenarios involving significant risks, whereas in other scenarios, chatbots could take a more prominent role.
For instance, AI can be used in grocery store apps to offer recipe advice based on what the store sells, or to gather general food preferences before providing meal suggestions.
Factors to Consider with AI-Replicated Conversation
The relevance of AI-generated chatbot responses ultimately depends on the data it pulls from. Various factors need to be considered, such as biases in the model, programmed perspectives, and the verifiability of information provided.
Wariness should also be exercised regarding the potential biases and limitations of generative AI to ensure its safe and effective use in real-time communication.
Wrapping Up
AI is making great strides in replicating human conversation for various use cases, but it still has limitations and potential biases. Therefore, the use of generative AI, particularly in high-risk scenarios, must be carefully regulated. With continued review and regulation, generative AI can increasingly replace human-managed conversations successfully.