"Forget Artificial Intelligence, Here's Artificial Empathy"

A repost from October 2013:

Thanks to whoever sent this in, if you wish a hat tip drop us a line and we'll do the right thing.
From Kernal Magazine:

AI is over: this is artificial empathy

Worried about the NSA spying on you? That’s nothing compared to the intricate analysis of your voice patterns that happens every time you call the gas company.

Are you the kind of person who prefers to be chatty on customer service calls, or do you like to get right to the point? Do you prefer to be lead through an explanation every step of the way, or do you prefer the person on the other end to just shut up and “do what they need to do”? Do you prefer person-centered explanations, or technical explanations? Are you outgoing, or are you shy?

Believe it or not, there is a computer system out there that can figure out the details of your personality and interaction style after listening to mere seconds of your phone calls. In fact, this may have already happened the last time you called a customer service line. There is no way you would ever know.

Mattersight is an extremely sophisticated data analysis system that listens to the way you respond on the telephone. It listens to you in the background, and breaks down hundreds of micro-features of your voice: volume, tone, pauses, speed of response, and so on. It uses extremely sophisticated mathematical algorithms to interpret these features, compare them to data in their databases, and come up with a personality profile for you.

All of this happens, by the way, during the first few seconds that you are on the phone. It could even be happening while you are working your way through a voice-activated menu system.

Then, when you are finally connected to a sales representative or customer service professional, Mattersight takes its analysis of your personality, compares it to the personality profiles of the call center employees that it has on file, and automatically connects you with the service agent that you are most compatible with....MORE

Mattersight trades NASDAQ, symbol MATR, $4.12 and a $72 million cap.
Here are the second quarter financials, they are going to have to raise some money or get profitable, fast.
Not our kind of deal.

note: the "MORE" link has rotted, here's the Internet Archive - http://web.archive.org/web/20131029194256/http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/5910/ai-is-so-over-this-is-artificial-empathy/# 

note: MATR was purchased for $2.70 per share in 2018. 

As the retail guys say: "But Mr. Bigg, if you annualize that..."