Figuring out our Non-Human Counterpart

Silvia Cambie:

I find board games generally mind-numbing and boring. But playing against an AI agent… now that’s a different story all together.

I rewatched AlphaGo during the holidays, a captivating documentary about a super computer powered by artificial intelligence which a few years ago won an iconic five-game match of Go against the world’s leading player, the Korean Lee Sedol.

The movie takes you on an emotional roller-coaster through the games and gets you to empathize with Sedol, feeling as puzzled as him when he tries to figure out a counterpart who is not a person and has no human features. Unlike other players, AlphaGo has no body language, no facial expressions you can read, no tell-tale signs like fidgeting or shifting in a chair.

And that’s what got me intrigued… I wondered what I would do if I had to “read’ a non-human counterpart in a negotiation. Undoubtedly, this is going to happen very soon. Experts are already predicting that we will have to market to bots, so why not conduct negotiations with them?

If you are used to negotiating with people, after a number of years you start spotting patterns of behaviour (like the nervous movement of a lip before a not entirely honest answer). These are important signposts you can use to steer the conversation towards the results you are seeking.

But what happens when you are sitting in front of a screen talking to an AI agent? How does a tell-tale sign indicating that you might be losing look like?

A bot will probably have its own style. One, which after talking to it several times, you will be able to recognise and use to your advantage… to gain ground in an argument. But where would that agent get its style from? From the humans who trained it? From the data it learns from? From your reactions to it?

I am sure the months to come will bring some answers to these questions. And more questions will arise… about the kind of relationships we want to build with our non-human counterparts.

++

Silvia Cambie is an accomplished professional who works at the crossroads of technology and communication. A former business journalist, Silvia’s background spans corporate comms, employee engagement, change management and enterprise social networking. Her experience in tech includes digital transformation, Cloud and AI. She is a #WeLeadComms honoree, a Strategic Columnist, and a published author.