this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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[–] Bman915@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

I've worked as a first responder for a number of years, our county like many have an emergency number, 911, and a non-emergency number, i.e. 123-456-7890. We actually carry cards with the nom emergency number on it with us in the truck to pass out if a call was less than an emergency for people in our county to put into their phones for future use. We also are a smaller place and only ever have 2-3 dispatchers on at a time, so if the calls on the non-emergency line they got could be 'auto-filled' by the AI with the location, need, and everything and wasn't tieing up a dispatcher that would be great. The main 911 number needs to ALWAYS be human answered. If the dispatcher makes the decision that it is non-emergent and transfers it over to the AI when they're busy then great, but those first words you hear after you hit 911 needs to be human.

[–] frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 4 points 5 hours ago

AI is horrible at understanding context. remember when that lady was calling the police about her abuser and coded it to sound like a pizza order? yea I can see an AI hanging up

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

So if you are in trouble or held against your will and you say you'll order pizza but sneK a call to 911 for help instead and pretend to order and give your address for delivery hoping an operator catches on.... Doubt the AI will catch on.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 10 points 8 hours ago

Without reducing headcount, right? Right?

[–] eletes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 hours ago

They should just spend that money on an ad campaign for the non emergency line

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 19 points 15 hours ago

Companies are already going away from such ideas..

[–] atlien51@lemm.ee 11 points 17 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 11 points 9 hours ago

no

maybe to have in cases where they are under to much load, such as a massive emergency where they get way more calls than they can handle.

as a backup only.

but even then it'll encourage them to have less personnel.

never had a conversation that didn't hallucinate every now and then

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 6 points 13 hours ago

A lot depends on the implementation rather than the idea itself. I've read plenty of stories of people stuck on hold with 9-1-1 - including deaths - as well as cases where they've been hung up on by shitty operators.

An AI system might be able to do some basic triage to prioritize calls for the human operators and actually result in faster access/response and saved lives. It might also be able to do things like transcribing information such as addresses or location for responders. If the AI is planned to be a replacement for humans rather than an augmentation though, lives will likely be lost

[–] noodlesreborn@lemmy.world 31 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Customer support is annoying or whatever but this is horrifying. Several people will die because of this.

[–] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

you're too concerned about those "consequences" but have you considered that they get to fire people as well and save money?

did you think of all the taxes they'll cut from the rich? no, you only think about yourself and what will happen to you in an emergency

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

did you think of all the taxes they’ll cut from the rich? no, you only think about yourself and what will happen to you in an emergency

This is what it comes down to.

Rich people matter.

[–] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 1 points 6 hours ago

In our society they are the only ones that matter, unless they start to live in fear

[–] MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

It says for non-emergency calls.

It might actually help with real emergency calls getting through faster.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

If someone calls 911 how on earth do you know its a non-emergency before speaking with someone?

[–] drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Unless the AI fucks up and makes it sound like an emergency.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 9 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

One thing left unclear is how the determination is made about emergency versus non emergency.

If it's a separate number, ok, seems clear cut enough.

If it's human always answers and if it's some bullshit they just click a button to punt to AI instead of just hanging up, ok.

If they are saying the AI answers and does the triage and hands off immediately to a human when "emergency detected", then I could see how that promise could fail.

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 1 points 13 hours ago

The important thing is that they can tune this to attempt to hold false negatives constant while decreasing false positive rate.

[–] noodlesreborn@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I know, and maybe it will, my faith is just very low.

[–] ApatheticCactus@lemmy.world 25 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Oh you want to talk directly to a person? You need to subscribe to 911+. For only $4.99 a month, you get the following perks...

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 10 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Just unlock it using your white voice.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You kid but voice recognition doesn't handle accents as well wherein accents is defined as anything other than what you hear on the news.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 1 points 5 hours ago

Last century: whistling tones into the phone to get a free call

This century: faking an accent to get the police to respond

Wait, that sounds like the last century as well...

[–] mriswith@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

I wonder how many hundreds of millions of dollars they've set aside for settlements.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Imagine your chatbot hallucinating as it tries to assist you in your life and death critical situation.

[–] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

"To preform chest compression place both hand in the center of the subjects chest. Apply a rthymic steady pumping action until the subject wakes up. If the subject does not wake continue chest compressions until the subject wakes up. If the subject does not wake continue chest compressions until the subject wakes up. If the subject does not wake up seek medical advice, or call 911."

"To apply a large bandage, peel back the red pull tab to expose the badage-aid, place wound over the white pad and wrap the wrap firmly around the skin. Finally adiminister 50mg of Goprelto to ease the pain."

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"I said this like 3 time already! Get me to the hospital for fucks sake, I'm gonna die in this situation if y'all don't send someone soon..."

AI: "Understood, 'Hostage Situation'. Sending a SWAT Team..."

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