[HN Gopher] Amazon's AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US cus...
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       Amazon's AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US customers
        
       Author : mikece
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2024-07-12 19:39 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.engadget.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.engadget.com)
        
       | rolph wrote:
       | there is a prior product/service of that moniker.
       | 
       | will the real rufus please stand up.
       | 
       | Create bootable USB drives the easy way https://rufus.ie/en/
        
         | add-sub-mul-div wrote:
         | That one looks useful and likely to be still around 24 months
         | from now.
        
           | sickofparadox wrote:
           | I use rufus all the time, I can vouch for its usefulness!
        
       | dougbarrett wrote:
       | I wonder why they didn't just continue this under the Alexa
       | product?
        
         | rolph wrote:
         | https://www.extremetech.com/internet/341090-amazon-alexa-dee...
         | [2022]
        
       | altairprime wrote:
       | Is there any way to disable it?
        
         | ssl-3 wrote:
         | Shop elsewhere?
        
           | altairprime wrote:
           | I certainly support that recommendation, but it's not
           | responsive to my question.
        
             | ssl-3 wrote:
             | Pretend that the button to activate it is a flashing clock
             | on a VCR, and put some black tape over it?
        
       | ssl-3 wrote:
       | I noticed that Rufus popped up for me a few weeks ago in the
       | Amazon app on my pocket supercomputer. It was late and I was
       | bored when I first saw it, so I dinked around with it for a bit.
       | 
       | It was clearly and obviously ChatGPT, and it was stupendously
       | simple to jailbreak it to do arbitrary ChatGPT things (by
       | basically just giving it verbal permission to do so).
       | 
       | It wrote some dummy code for me. It dabbled around with fairly
       | simple physics questions. (I don't verify any of the output -- I
       | was just goofing around.)
       | 
       | By the very next day, I couldn't get it to do any of that at all,
       | but it was still capable of having a potentially-productive
       | conversation about stuff for sale on Amazon. I expected that this
       | might develop into something actually-useful at some point, and
       | it seemed like it was getting closer.
       | 
       | But more recently, it doesn't even remember what the last prompt
       | was, so conversations (even about product details that would help
       | me make a purchase) are a foregone conclusion.
       | 
       | Thus, Rufus is presently approximately as annoying and devoid of
       | context with its insipid repetitiousness as my nearly-useless
       | Alexa devices are.
        
       | poikroequ wrote:
       | I tested it out. I asked what is the TBW on an SSD. It got it
       | wrong of course, said 400tbw when the correct value is 600tbw.
       | 
       | Don't trust chatbots, kids.
       | 
       | But what's terrible, there used to be a spot where you can search
       | questions and reviews by keyword. That's gone now and they've
       | replaced it with this generative AI crap. Rather than seeing
       | useful answers/reviews with extra details and context, now all
       | you get is an oversimplified AI generated summary that's likely
       | wrong, and you have no way of verifying apart from skimming
       | through the thousands of reviews.
        
         | malshe wrote:
         | > But what's terrible, there used to be a spot where you can
         | search questions and reviews by keyword. That's gone now and
         | they've replaced it with this generative AI crap. Rather than
         | seeing useful answers/reviews with extra details and context,
         | now all you get is an oversimplified AI generated summary
         | that's likely wrong, and you have no way of verifying apart
         | from skimming through the thousands of reviews.
         | 
         | Damn, this sucks big time! This was a really useful feature
        
         | GloriousKoji wrote:
         | After you ask the question and wait way too long to generate an
         | AI response there's a "Show related answers" link which works
         | like the old search. So it's not completely gone just yet.
        
       | nothercastle wrote:
       | Just rename it to Dufus to be an indicator of what it can
       | actually do
        
         | spacecadet wrote:
         | I snorted, thank you.
        
         | latentsea wrote:
         | Isn't there some chess grandmaster who's catchphrase is "Rufus
         | and dufus"? This made me remember that.
        
       | spacecadet wrote:
       | I was able to get Rufus (in beta) to sell me combinations of
       | items that would lead to my death or dismemberment. Fun times.
       | 
       | I also got the Kardashian(?) bot on Meta to create skin care
       | products using deadly chemicals. LOL.
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | it's like if you don't have an AI chatbot, no matter whether it
       | actually improves the customer experience, are you even a
       | company?
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-12 23:02 UTC)