Does more sophisticated, user-friendly software reduce the risks?
No, it increases the risks. Currently, phone answering systems ask us to punch numbers or pronounce single words, thereby routing us to a human operator who can deal with our substantive concerns. With better voice recognition software, that operator will become a software agent that attempts to hold a conversation with us. If you thought the number-punching phase was irritating, wait until you have to communicate the heart of your business to a computer with erratic hearing, a doubtful vocabulary of 400 words, and the compassion of a granite monolith! In other words, as software advances, it is applied to more critical activities, where the risks are greater. The technical opportunity to become friendlier at one level is at the same time an opportunity to become unfriendly on a more decisive level. We must be more awake, more alert to our machine-transcending responsibilities, when dealing with the more advanced software, precisely because the advanced capabilities invite us to let go
