logo
AI receptionists begin replacing humans in technological shift

AI receptionists begin replacing humans in technological shift

News.com.au07-06-2025

RingCentral Vice President Amir Hameed discusses new innovative AI technologies in the receptionist space.
"No more please hold, and it can handle all of the basic queries that you would typically have," Mr Hameed said.
"The human element isn't going to be replaced.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Billionaire with 10 kids dead at 80
Billionaire with 10 kids dead at 80

News.com.au

time4 hours ago

  • News.com.au

Billionaire with 10 kids dead at 80

Fred Smith, the billionaire founder of revolutionary delivery firm FedEx, has died at the age of 80. FedEx started up in 1973 delivering small parcels and documents more quickly than the postal service. Smith oversaw its growth to a behemoth of the industry, relied upon by other companies all over the world. The business now delivers a staggering 17 million parcels every day. His cause of death is yet to be confirmed. After Smith graduated Yale University, he used a business theory he developed in college to create a delivery system. His approach became known as a 'hub and spokes' system, and was based on co-ordinated air cargo flights centred around a main hub. At the start, FedEx had 14 small aircraft operating out of the Memphis International Airport flying packages to 25 American cities. Smith, worth $5.3 billion ($A8.3 billion) at his death according to Forbes, was also known for his philanthropy. He stepped down as FedEx's CEO in 2022, but remained at the helm as executive chairman. Memphis's former mayor Jim Strickland hailed him as 'the most significant Memphian in history'. Strickland said: 'He benefited our city in every way possible and allowed generations of Memphians to achieve the American dream. 'God bless Fred Smith. My condolences to the Smith family.' He donated millions of dollars to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation - after serving for four years in the Marine Corps himself. In an 2023 interview, he said that all the experience he used to run FedEx came from his experience in the Marines, not what he learned at Yale. Politicians and commercial figures have paid tribute to the legendary businessman. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn said: 'I am deeply saddened by the passing of Fred Smith. 'As the founder of FedEx, his leadership and innovation transformed global commerce, and he will be remembered for his relentless drive, patriotism, and commitment to service. 'His legacy will endure not only through the company he built but through the countless lives he touched. 'Praying for his wife, children, and family.'

By robots, for robots: The new soundtrack to our lives is giving me nightmares
By robots, for robots: The new soundtrack to our lives is giving me nightmares

Sydney Morning Herald

time5 hours ago

  • Sydney Morning Herald

By robots, for robots: The new soundtrack to our lives is giving me nightmares

The song Echoes of Tomorrow is a laid-back, catchy tune that might happily slot into a summer playlist on Spotify or Apple Music. Only the lyrics, which make curious references to 'algorithms,' reveal its non-human creator: Artificial intelligence. The track's mimicry of flesh-and-blood pop is pretty unsettling. Yet what's really disturbing is the sheer quantity of similar AI tunes sloshing around online. Tools like Udio and Suno, trained on millions of songs crafted by human artists, are now churning out millions of their own tunes at the click of a button. Deezer, a rival of Spotify, estimates 20,000 AI tracks are uploaded to its platform daily, 18 per cent of the total. While they only account for 0.5 per cent of total listens, real royalties are being earned and often fraudulently so, judging by the spread of bots to amplify listens. This may not be a Napster-scale issue yet – but the $20 billion music market is clearly vulnerable. Which is why Deezer is now trying a little more sunlight to disinfect its platform. It's going to start labelling AI-generated content, based on proprietary software. On a recent visit to the firm's Paris headquarters, I watched on a laptop as the detection tool quickly spotted the telltale signs of a computer-composed song – in this case, Echoes of Tomorrow – with what it says is 100 per cent accuracy. It turns out that while human ears can be fooled, AI-generated music can be detected from statistical patterns used in its creation. That's helped the fight against fraud behind the scenes; now it's going to empower listeners. Deezer deserves two cheers for this – and maybe one nervous gulp. Increased transparency about the provenance of music is one way to ensure a fairer playing field in a market whose pay-per-stream model already felt unequal for artists lower down the food chain. It's also a good way to indirectly put pressure on the bigger platforms like Spotify to follow suit and show users what they're paying for. Much of Spotify's $145 billion market cap is built on expectations of price hikes and premium subscription tiers – these would be harder to justify if built on AI content masquerading as the real thing. Yet what remains worrying is the extent to which AI music is overwhelmingly cannibalising, not feeding, the human artists on which it was trained without compensation. As Deezer's own experience attests, the utopian view of AI empowering creators by taking care of low-value tasks isn't what's happening: Instead, royalty-collecting society the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers estimates AI music's growth through 2028 will come largely at the expense of humans, generating an estimated €10 billion ($18 billion) of revenue by substituting artists' work. And while streaming platforms have a role to play here, so do governments and regulators if AI firms are to also improve transparency on the sources of their training data. Loading 'We're seeing AI music shrink the royalty pool for human artists,' says Ed Newton-Rex, an AI music specialist and founder of nonprofit lobby group Fairly Trained. 'There are real economic consequences to this technology.' Detecting and flagging AI music at the point of distribution is just the start. What's also needed is a model that protects artists who are threatened at the point of generation – such as paid licensing deals between copyright holders and tech platforms like Suno, which are currently in discussion. Newton-Rex says that detection tools like Deezer's could be used by streaming platforms for sanctioning AI tools that don't respect musicians' rights by removing their uploaded content. He has a point. If human creativity really is going to get a boost from new tech tools, Echoes of Tomorrow has to be yesterday's news.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store