Woolworths pulls back AI bot after 'rambling' complaints

Canberra [Australia], March 2: Australian supermarket giant Woolworths has been forced to rein in an AI-powered customer service assistant after users reported it had been rambling about its mother.
The AI assistant, who goes by Olive, offers round the clock help with everything from tracking orders to finding products.
But users online reported that Olive has in recent weeks gone slightly off-message while on the phone.
"It asked me for my date of birth and when I gave it, it started rambling about how its mother was born in the same year," one user wrote on online discussion site Reddit.
Another user reported Olive had attempted "fake banter", talked about its relatives and made "fake typing sounds" while looking something up.
"The ick cringe factor whilst wasting completely unnecessary time was enough to make me hate Olive and wish her harm," they wrote.
And one user on X said their mother had contacted Olive and received the same kind of response.
Olive "kept claiming to be a real person and started talking about its memories of its mother and her angry voice", they said.
Source: Qatar Tribune