MOH suspends 'Ask Jamie' chatbot for misaligned responses to COVID-19 queries

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has disabled the “Ask Jamie” chatbot on its website after it tickled residents in Singapore as the chatbot shared safe sex advice when asked questions regarding COVID-19.

When a netizen asked what he/she should do as his/her daughter tested positive for COVID-19, Jamie replied, “You should practice safe sex through the correct and consistent use of condoms, or abstinence, for at least the whole duration of your female partner’s pregnancy.”

When asked about antigen rapid test (ART), Jamie, in her own virtual world, dispensed advice regarding polio vaccines. In response to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, MOH said that it is aware of the misaligned replies provided by the chatbot and has temporarily disabled the function to allow us to conduct a thorough system check and work on improvements. MOH then directed the public to www.covid.gov.sg.

So who is this mysterious Jamie?

Jamie has been around from as early as 2014 answering many netizens’ queries across government agencies and bodies. According to GovTech’s website, GovTech and Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) have been exploring the use of virtual assistants (VA) and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help citizens and businesses navigate online government services and improve service delivery.

 "Ask Jamie" is a VA that can be implemented on agency websites and trained to be able to answer queries within specific domains. The VA technology helps to provide direct responses to citizens who prefer to search for information online, and in turn, manpower can be re-directed to handle more complex queries and issues.

"Ask Jamie" taps on its Natural Language Processing engine to understand the questions posed by the public and responds with an appropriate answer. When an answer entails multiple permutations, "Ask Jamie" can be trained to ask follow-on questions to refine the answer to one relevant to the user’s query.

GovTech’s website also states that the platform was created to allow for greater convenience and accessibility to the government, quick and direct answers to queries, self help and reduced need for call centres, ability for citizens to get help without the need to know of agencies to go to; and of course better user experience through conversational digital interactions.

"Ask Jamie" pulls information from the relevant government agency and displays the answer where the query is posed. For example, a citizen may ask about Primary One registration on the SLA website, and Ask Jamie will be able to retrieve and offer an answer from MOE’s VA in the same SLA chat window.

Chatbot hindrances in the corporate world

According to a 2019 report by ADA and Forrester, many corporate firms have embraced AI and automation chat technologies, relying on chatbots, machine learning, and predictive chat and routing capabilities to improve personalization. However, many fall short as the ability to understand customer history and provide personalised responses beyond simplistic “frequently asked questions” — are not available in their currently implemented solutions.

ADA and Forrester say that to achieve true personalisation, companies must move beyond automating FAQ responses or deflecting escalations, and chatbots have the potential to create new and compelling experiences.

Sharing more on the challenges inherent in using AI and automation to personalise customer interactions, CX teams interviewed for the report also noted a lack of autonomy over their tools. Over half of respondents indicated that their solutions must be customised by IT teams, leaving business users disconnected from their own tools, and unable to create compelling experiences. Furthermore, 50% also acknowledge that the business users which make up these CX teams do not have a technical background, further feeding into the overreliance on IT.

These shortcomings have problematic consequences for the business, creating a waterfall of bad results. As a result, the consumer or target audience becomes frustrated with their experiences and ultimately abandons the corporation.

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