I recently hosted a virtual global call for Transformation Executive leaders.
One of the participants, Rachel was unable to join the call, so she politely declined and sent her apologies.
At the start of the call which was attended by 20 other participants, I noticed that ‘Rachel’s Bot’ joined the call. This Bot was powered by a newly emerging AI software tool.
As anticipated, ‘Rachel’s Bot’ was unresponsive to voice when I called out to it, but then via the chat functionality available in the call, immediately started to transcribe the conversation and took actions from the call.
After a few more minutes, it was clear that the transcription was not a true reflection of the conversation. I promptly removed ‘Rachel’s Bot’ from the conversation because it was firstly a distraction, but also that the other participants had not agreed to a Bot attending to listen and transcribe the meeting.
I then contacted Rachel to inform her that she had sent her Bot to the meeting. She was not aware that she had performed this and had forgotten to remove the software after trialing it.
I am interested to know your thoughts. In the future, as the functionality of AI progresses, would you be comfortable if a colleague sends a Bot on their behalf if they are unable to make the meeting? Would you send a Bot to a meeting on your behalf? Is it ethical? Saving Changes...
Ming YeungAdjunct Professor & Acting COO/CPO/CRO (contract)| Blockchain Venture Capital Inc.Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I would send a bot to a meeting if fully consented by other meeting participants as long as the ethical values of honesty, responsibility, respect and fairness can be adequately managed, opened disclosed, and properly addressed. Thank you for the thought-provoking topic. Saving Changes...
I feel there should be a policy written and then clearly posted about attendance and recording. Most events and meetings have these policies in place for legal, copyright, privacy, and other reasons. Luckily it was called "bot", but sometimes it is not that simple to police virtual events for these policies. Virtual event holders may need to assume for now that there will be these types or bots at most events. If privacy of information needs to be restricted, then it is increasingly more difficult in these times to hold virtual meetings like this.
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1 reply by Pawel Remigiusz Wojtal
Aug 22, 2023 2:40 AM
Pawel Remigiusz Wojtal
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This is definitelly the thing that many organizations must adjust - to reflect the existence of AI-driven bots - and to ban them or to give the boundaries of secure, ethical and legal usage. However, in my opinion, the organization which considered to have bots on the meetings that replace human presence should deeply rethink its communication and culture. If the human interactions in the meetings are not important then why have them at all? Is the agenda of the meeting accurate? Why participants are not interested in the active discussion? Why do we need to have the meeting? Maybe we should change it to email, Yammer post or some BI Visualisation? The situation that was described looks to me like some pathological situation and it rings a bell in me that something is fundamentally wrong in such an organization.
I feel there should be a policy written and then clearly posted about attendance and recording. Most events and meetings have these policies in place for legal, copyright, privacy, and other reasons. Luckily it was called "bot", but sometimes it is not that simple to police virtual events for these policies. Virtual event holders may need to assume for now that there will be these types or bots at most events. If privacy of information needs to be restricted, then it is increasingly more difficult in these times to hold virtual meetings like this.
This is definitelly the thing that many organizations must adjust - to reflect the existence of AI-driven bots - and to ban them or to give the boundaries of secure, ethical and legal usage. However, in my opinion, the organization which considered to have bots on the meetings that replace human presence should deeply rethink its communication and culture. If the human interactions in the meetings are not important then why have them at all? Is the agenda of the meeting accurate? Why participants are not interested in the active discussion? Why do we need to have the meeting? Maybe we should change it to email, Yammer post or some BI Visualisation? The situation that was described looks to me like some pathological situation and it rings a bell in me that something is fundamentally wrong in such an organization. Saving Changes...
Sending bot in your stead to the meeting is not really feasible at current stage of the development, in my opinion.
However, using the bot to properly transcribe the minute, mark and summarise the points discussed and (potentially) propose some extra action plan that was not discussed during the meeting is something that is very reasonable, achievable already now and can be great help to a lot of people :)
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1 reply by Pawel Remigiusz Wojtal
Aug 25, 2023 9:02 AM
Pawel Remigiusz Wojtal
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That's true - but I would not consider such think as a bot - it's just a tool to help. The transcription of meetings is currently present in many software, eg. MS Teams contains such feature. Also - making notes from the meetings or help to collect action items might be very useful.
Bot for me, in the given scenario, is the machinery who is called in to the meeting as a replacement of the human who was invited. Is it achievable? I can imagine some situations that it shall be possible even in the current stage of the AI.
Sending bot in your stead to the meeting is not really feasible at current stage of the development, in my opinion.
However, using the bot to properly transcribe the minute, mark and summarise the points discussed and (potentially) propose some extra action plan that was not discussed during the meeting is something that is very reasonable, achievable already now and can be great help to a lot of people :)
That's true - but I would not consider such think as a bot - it's just a tool to help. The transcription of meetings is currently present in many software, eg. MS Teams contains such feature. Also - making notes from the meetings or help to collect action items might be very useful.
Bot for me, in the given scenario, is the machinery who is called in to the meeting as a replacement of the human who was invited. Is it achievable? I can imagine some situations that it shall be possible even in the current stage of the AI.
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1 reply by Kirill Barabanov
Aug 25, 2023 9:14 AM
Kirill Barabanov
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Well, if the Bot can get some extensive individualized training, consume and train upon all the relevant project documentation that is relevant for the meeting - i believe it will be able to provide certain feedback.
In case some decisions are required - i guess some sort of setting/sensitivity can be added.
These cases, however, are completely not covered by working processes in vast majority of the organisations - which is what you also mention a couple of posts up - so we have to sort the lack of internal governance on this topic.
But in case the AI development allows, i see a more usefull application in cancelling the meeting, making AI responsible for reviewing all the documents and status updates from project streams - and presenting appropriate summaries to decisionmakes where necessary.
P.S: we have to look out, its out to get our jobs for itself :)
That's true - but I would not consider such think as a bot - it's just a tool to help. The transcription of meetings is currently present in many software, eg. MS Teams contains such feature. Also - making notes from the meetings or help to collect action items might be very useful.
Bot for me, in the given scenario, is the machinery who is called in to the meeting as a replacement of the human who was invited. Is it achievable? I can imagine some situations that it shall be possible even in the current stage of the AI.
Well, if the Bot can get some extensive individualized training, consume and train upon all the relevant project documentation that is relevant for the meeting - i believe it will be able to provide certain feedback.
In case some decisions are required - i guess some sort of setting/sensitivity can be added.
These cases, however, are completely not covered by working processes in vast majority of the organisations - which is what you also mention a couple of posts up - so we have to sort the lack of internal governance on this topic.
But in case the AI development allows, i see a more usefull application in cancelling the meeting, making AI responsible for reviewing all the documents and status updates from project streams - and presenting appropriate summaries to decisionmakes where necessary.
P.S: we have to look out, its out to get our jobs for itself :)
