this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Read the article.
The AI system will only reroute calls that it can determine are not emergency calls. The default will be to let the calls through to the human staff. It's not going to be some sort of primitive "press 1 if you are currently on fire" menu system.
Very few people call the police non-emergency line because few people even know it and everyone knows 911
Seems like a good idea to have a mechanism to divert the non-emergency calls off of the 911 dispatchers, then.
Have many emergencies that aren't transferred does there have to be before it's unacceptable? I'd say if one person calls with an emergency, gets AI, and doesn't get transferred, then the entire system is failed and someone should go to jail.
What is wrong with the current setup? I bet a person can direct non emergency traffic faster than any AI, because they can actually comprehend a person and think. It's not broken, someone is just about to make a fuck load of money at the expense of people not getting through to emergency services.
Alright, let's go with that standard for purposes of argument.
If one person calls the emergency line with an emergency and doesn't get through because the human dispatchers are currently overwhelmed with non-emergency calls, does that mean the entire current system is failed and someone should go to jail?
We have the best 911 dispatchers in the world, because of jail
I don't think so, because currently there is no artificial delay. if someone has to be got rid of, that is the person(s) who are keeping the call center short staffed, whoever that is and whatever high up the chain they are
I would say there's a failure in the body responsible for hiring and paying people to answer emergency calls. The only reason there is a shortage is because they are under paying employees. So yes, but AI, like everywhere else it's been implemented, will fall short of what's needed and will ultimately cost more financially, with the exception that in this case, lives could also be lost.
There's without a doubt a problem, but AI isn't the solution.
Unless it literally is. Do you know that it won't be? What other example do you have to base your assertion on?
I'm not going to argue with you. AI blows. There are article out there about companies hiring people back after going to AI. It really is a snake oil product that corporations have gobbled up. It's got it's use cases as a tool, but not as a human replacement, especially in matters of live and death.
You can look up and research some articles of you want, or don't. Clearly your opinion on the matter is not popular, and that could be some hive mind, or it could be because everyone else sees the problems that you don't.
Putting a system in place that can't actually think at all and have it try and comprehend what is or is not an emergency, to me, is a terrible idea, and doomed to fail. Take that as you will, I won't be following up with anything else. You can have the final word if you want, because I just can't be bothered to care.
Block and move on :)
This is for sure me sometimes. I'll work something out over 10 minutes and decide that I don't want to deal with any follow up or that the way I typed it wasn't clear enough and I don't want to fix it.
As much as I would like to clock and move inside sometimes, I also believe that silence is complacency, and when I feel something said is wrong that others will read, I have an obligation to say something. I'm definitely not always right, but in some matters it's more perspective and others it's based on fact. This conversation ran it's course for me.
Damn. I get ice cold emotionless during an emergency, going straight to the point of reciting location and event when calling 911. Now I will have to also remember in the back of my mind to throw in a wavering voice and a couple of shrieks maybe to have my call routed properly. What a future.
The opposite is extremely common too. People get on the phone and instantly go into raw panic mode and yell about 500 words at you before you've even had a chance to read your greeting. After putting down some choice words to control them a bit, you find out they found a bag of weed in their teenager's bag or their neighbour's playing music too loud.
To make it worse, it'll quickly get figured out and people will be calling in "oh my God! he's trying to kill me", get transferred to a person and be like "so, it's 3pm in a Saturday and my neighbors are playing their music too loud!"
Who makes this determination?
Again, did you read the article?
Or even the comment I wrote that you are responding to right now? I said the answer to this in the comment you're responding to.
Both, and no, your ~~quote~~ comment and the article conflict.
What does the article say, then? You know the answer, go ahead and correct me.
Right there in your quote it says the AI would only interact with nonemergency calls. You said the system would reroute nonemergency calls.
So when a call comes in to 911, who picks up? A person or an AI?
You said my comment conflicts with the article. In what way? What does the article say happens?
Read the downvotes and stfu.
Edit: Ohhh. This is your troll account. Blocking this AI spam bot.
What is the point in posting an article when nobody's going to address the contents of it?
I have a hard time putting faith in their promise that it won't affect anyone poorly. They're just handwaving criticism away with statements that make this AI seem like magic with zero explanation of actual details.