Harvard Business Review: “The Risks of Botshit”
Botshit — made-up, inaccurate, and untruthful chatbot content that humans uncritically use for tasks — can pose major risks to your business in the form of reputational damage, incorrect decisions, legal liability, economic losses, and even human safety. Yet, it’s unlikely that chatbots are going away. How can you manage these risks while taking advantage of the benefits of promising new tools? The authors suggest asking two key questions based on their research: How important is chatbot response veracity for a task? And how difficult is it to verify the veracity of the chatbot response? Based on your responses to these questions, you can better identify the risks associated with a given task — and successfully mitigate them.
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.


Botshit — made-up, inaccurate, and untruthful chatbot content that humans uncritically use for tasks — can pose major risks to your business in the form of reputational damage, incorrect decisions, legal liability, economic losses, and even human safety. Yet, it’s unlikely that chatbots are going away. How can you manage these risks while taking advantage of the benefits of promising new tools? The authors suggest asking two key questions based on their research: How important is chatbot response veracity for a task? And how difficult is it to verify the veracity of the chatbot response? Based on your responses to these questions, you can better identify the risks associated with a given task — and successfully mitigate them.