I spent an hour on the phone today with the California DMV's automated phone service just to SCHEDULE an appointment. I don't think I've ever wanted to strangle a robot so badly in my life.
It's funny how sometimes our goal for AI or machine learning is to closely mimic human behavior, and other times using humans as the model is comically unideal considering our limitations. If I was on Spotify's machine learning team, I would want the former: a playlist-generating algorithm that mirrors what a famous taste-setting DJ might play or recommend to listeners. On the flip side, if I was on Waymo's artificial intelligence team, I would want the latter: a self-driving car decision making system that does not aim to mimic humans since humans are horrible, irrational drivers that cannot calculate the best course of action in a road scenario nearly as efficiently as these autonomous vehicles eventually will.
This whole spiel is just to say the California DMV for some reason decided to model its automated phone service technology after the actual DMV, and that blows.
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