Think telemarketers are a pest? Wait till China’s AI versions call
- They can make 3,000 calls a day without getting tired or temperamental and even blocking their number won’t stop them
- There’s not even anypoint in swearing at them. Welcome to China’s brave new world of telemarketing in the artificial intelligence age
Shanghai resident Fan Kaiyi has been on the receiving end of unsolicited calls for as long as she can remember.
Whether at home or on her mobile phone, the digital project coordinator, 38, is bombarded by sales representatives trying to sell her everything from property, insurance policies and pharmaceutical products to fitness classes and emigration services. Others try to convince her to take out bank loans requiring no background checks or collaterals.
Lately, the calls have taken a new twist. Now when she answers the phone Fan often finds there is nobody on the other end. At least, there’s no person there. It’s a robot instead – and a very realistic one too.
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“At first I didn’t even realise I was speaking to an automated service. I told the ‘person’ that I did not require an energy-boosting product and the voice went on to recommend another, similar product,” she said.
“When I asked ‘didn’t you hear what I just said’, the voice did not appear to understand. Just as I was about to hang up the phone, the voice suddenly identified itself as an AI phone assistant.”
Fan felt her time had been wasted. “I felt stupid talking to a machine. But the voice was so real and did not sound as if it was pre-recorded.”
Makers of the robots claim in online advertisements they can “make over 3,000 phone calls a day”, “increase sales by 140 per cent”, “support and identify many different [Chinese] dialects” and that they do all this with “no human intervention needed”.
Extolling the robots’ virtues, an online sales assistant said: “Unlike humans, they will never get tired or temperamental. They are low cost and efficient. Best of all, they will never quit on you.”
A smart telemarketing system can cost as little as 1,313 yuan (US$190). Fork out a little more and you can get a system that can even get through to numbers that have blocked the telemarketer.
Not picking up the phone is not an option, said Fan, as she has no way of knowing who is on the other end.
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EIGHT TIMES A DAY
Chengdu native Zhang Kai said he used to receive two to three nuisance calls daily, but recently this had risen to as many as eight a day.
In China, such calls are routinely referred to as “nuisance or harassment calls”.
“Previously I could direct my annoyance at a person when I received a nuisance call. Now with a robot, I don’t even know how to redirect my frustrations,” Zhang said.
Zhang added that the AI-driven voice programs seemed sophisticated enough to respond flexibly to his questions.
“If I utter the name of a related product, they will be able to tell me more about that product,” he explained.
Chinese voice “bots”, or software applications, have proliferated in China since the country made AI, or artificial intelligence, a major part of its ‘Made in China 2025’ plan to shift the economy’s focus from manufacturing to services.
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According to Zion Market Research, the Chinese smart voice market was worth 15.9 billion yuan (US$2.3 billion) in 2017, accounting for more than one-third of the global market of US$6.2 billion at the time. The global market is expected to grow to US$19.6 billion by 2025.
In China, “voice assistants” are not only built into smartphones and cars, but also television sets and refrigerators, helping people to perform daily chores.
Technology analyst Liu Huan said smart voice technology was now so advanced it was difficult to differentiate it from human speakers.
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“After the bot developers sell their technology to companies, they do not care to know whether it is used legally or ethically,” Liu added.
This partly explains why individuals such as Fan and Zhang have received calls asking if they would like to purchase fraudulent professional and educational certificates.
MAKE THE VOICES STOP
As such calls become more common, members of the public are wising up and finding ways to avoid them. One popular technique is to refuse to answer any call from a telephone number beginning with “95”, a code used by many telemarketing companies.
Members of the public are also calling for stronger regulations to curb the worst excesses of this brave new world of telemarketing.
Analysts suggested developing counter-technology and imposing higher penalties on those who sell products or services that are illegal.
“However, the key to restricting and controlling such calls lies in telecom operators taking on an effective regulatory role, even if it means eating into their bottom line. This is something that the authorities need to impose and make mandatory for the operators,” Liu said.
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On July 22, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology called on the country’s three biggest telecommunications companies – China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom – to make greater efforts to tackle fraudulent calls and harassment.
But for now, there appears to be relatively little that can be done to avoid the calls completely.
“You could slam down the phone,” said Zhang. “But since most of us use a mobile instead of a regular phone, and since the robot will not be able to understand your displeasure anyway, then I’d say just hang up.”
