What is a company’s obligation to customers when its AI chatbot makes a promise that can’t be kept?
Sep 23, 2024, 10:21 PM | Updated: 10:49 pm
DRAPER — When Robert Brown’s air conditioner went kaput, it was his first opportunity to use the home warranty he’s been paying for. As soon as he paid the dispatch fee, the warranty company sent a tech who managed to get the a/c running again—for now.
“But my whole unit is bad,” Brown says the tech told him, who also said the unit will certainly fail again.
So, he contacted his warranty provider, Choice Home Warranty, again through its online chat portal and asked them to replace the unit. Brown says he went back and forth with the company rep on the other end a couple of times. He declined their initial offer, which would have cost him $1,800, and he made a counteroffer.
“In the contract, it says that you can either repair or replace or you can pay me what you think it’s going to cost to replace the unit, etcetera,” Brown said.
Brown tells KSL’s Matt Gephardt that he believes the warranty company still has an obligation to him to honor its AI-generated agreement, whether or not the chat bot was on the fritz. (Aubrey Shafer, KSL TV)
In the chat window, Brown wrote, “Can I just get the maximum payout of $3000.00 and I will order and get it installed myself.”
The warranty company agreed to his offer, writing, “We will proceed with the payout option of $3,000.00 as per your request.”
Brown said he was assured several times thereafter that the “payout has been initiated,” but when it didn’t show up, he called Choice Home Warranty. The answer he got from the rep surprised him.
“He said, ‘We’ve had this AI up for about a week and it’s really confusing and miscommunicating to a lot of people.’” Brown said.
It turns out that the person Brown had been chatting with wasn’t a person at all. It was a bot, programmed to represent the company—artificial intelligence that was apparently on the fritz.
“I said, ‘How’s that my fault?’” Brown said.
Robert Brown says his warranty home provider agreed to pay $3,000 towards a replacement A/C unit but then backed out citing faulty AI programming of its chat bot. (Aubrey Shafer, KSL TV)
He told the company he expects them to honor what was promised. He said they refused.
“I just don’t know where to go from this,” Brown said. “So, that’s where I decided, you know what, let’s call Matt.”
He did, and I called the Utah Division of Consumer Protection to ask what the law says about this.
“A company is ultimately responsible for the things their representatives are saying,” said the division’s director, Katie Hass. “A robot can be a representative of a company.”
She said a company trying to wriggle out of a rep’s offer is nothing new. Historically, they’ve used excuses like a rogue salesperson going off script and making offers impossible to honor. While each complaint the division gets is investigated on its own merits, businesses cannot simply ignore agreements generated by their AI software.
“’The chatbot did it’ is not going to be an excuse when it comes to deceptive acts and practices in the State of Utah,” Hass said.
Utah Consumer Protection Division director Katie Hass tells KSL’s Matt Gephardt that “the chat bot did it” is not an acceptable excuse for a company to renege on a promise to a customer. (KSL TV)
Her advice to Robert Brown?
“If they feel like they’ve been deceived in any way by the chatbot, maybe because the bot made a promise that the company is not willing to honor now, they are welcome to file a complaint with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection,” she said.
“I’m just surprised that the AI information that is here is so detailed,” Brown said.
In the end, the Division won’t be investigating his experience with an AI chatbot. I reached out to the New Jersey-based home warranty company on his behalf. While KSL Investigates didn’t get a response, Brown said the company told him that they would honor their chatbot’s offer after all.
He has since received his check. There is still no comment from the warranty company for this story.
