The establishment and breakdown of trust in human-bot marketing calls

What is it about?

This research article explores how trust is established and broken down during unsolicited phone calls made by telemarketers to spam-interception services that employ AI bots designed to mimic human conversation. Using a corpus of recorded calls, the authors examine how telemarketers initially perceive the bots as human, relying on factors like an authentic human voice, the illusion of conversation progression, and the bots' use of "doing-being-human" excuses. When telemarketers realize they are not interacting with a human, they often exhibit emotional reactions such as verbal abuse towards the bot, expressions of surprise and embarrassment, and a shift towards using the call as a training opportunity. The study highlights the complex interplay between human communication, technology, and trust in an increasingly automated world.

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Why is it important?

It underscores the crucial role of trust in enabling bots to effectively engage telemarketers and disrupt their attempts to make unwanted calls. The bots achieve this by creating and sustaining an illusion of personhood, exploiting the working conditions of telemarketers, and strategically employing stereotypical human behaviors to maintain engagement and deflect suspicion