Paul Stenhouse: US 911 call centres turn to AI for help, Uncaged works to make fake leather smell like real leather

Understaffed 911 call centres are turning to AI to help  

911 callers come with some of the most urgent and serious issues, most of the time. But people also, stupidly, call 911 for noise complaints, lost wallets, and more. People see 911 as the way to reach the police.   

This means the operators are run off their feet dealing with all sorts of nonsense. Now there's a startup training its AI agents on 911 calls to help triage and get humans on the more important calls. It's being used in around a dozen call centres today.   

But can you imagine hearing, "I'm sorry, but I didn't quite understand you... can you say it again... police? Fire? Ambulance?" How do you feel about this one?  

 

Tech is helping make fake leather smell like real leather  

The company, Uncaged, says they can create a durable, animal and climate-friendly material that feels and even smells like leather. Hyundai has partnered with the company to test it for its cars and trucks and joins Jaguar Land Rover on their client list. A car can take anywhere from two to 14 cowhides to do the interior, delivering a carbon footprint 95% lower than that of leather. The automakers need it to be able to withstand hot temperatures for 500 hours, which can be a challenge for non-leather.  

Companies have been trying this for years – Apple moved away from leather cases for iPhones to a material called "FineWoven" that didn't hold up, and they've subsequently discontinued.  

 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
SO.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
In the US, nine one one callers come up with
some very serious issues, sometimes come up with I faced
with some really serious issues sometimes and other times they
do come up with really silly things. Anyway, people working
in nine to one one call centers have been totally
swept off their feet, and so they've come up with
a new solution to try and wade through some of
the slop they end up facing. And of course it's AI.

(00:37):
Our texpert Paul stein House is here with the details.
How are they using AI? Paul, Yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Took the line from me as they can you guess
how In twenty twenty five it's gotta be AI. They're
using it Jack to help triage. So I assume that
when you ring nine one one and you end up
at one of these call centers that has the AI,
it's going to ask you why you're calling, and then

(01:02):
it will use its own knowledge. Apparently it's been on
emergency calls. It probably has some real world knowledge of
things as well, and if it sounds urgent, it's going
to right straight over to a person. But if you're
ringing up about something like a noise complaint or that
you've lost your wallet or you know, the cats stuck

(01:24):
up in the tree, then it's probably going to send
you down a different part that will deprioritize you. In fact,
it can even like actually fill in one of the
reports for you. It will help you do that, you know,
as a conversation, and then we'll file it for you,
or you can get someone to give you a call back.
But I'm just having like a thought right that. You know,

(01:46):
when you call one on one in New Zealand and
they say police, fire ambulance.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
I'm having the same thought. I can hear yep, they do.
I can hear where you're going with this, but keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Can you imagine it doing the prompt like I don't
quite understand.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, ah, my ass is on fire.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
I'm sorry, Jack, Please please pet your centers. I didn't
quite catch.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
That operator operator.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, I mean I suppose if if it's better or
as good as understanding as a person would be, because
they must get all sorts of people and all sorts
of frantic situations who are struggling to communicate. You know,
if if it's as good as a person, then great,
I'm all for it. If it's not as good as
a person, then that could be well pretty tricky.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Here's the thing, right these it's being deployed at some
of these really small because each county I think over
here has their own one one, one course system classic
of course, yeah, I know, I love it, and so
terribly funded, totally overworked. So your call may not even
be answered, right, That's the reality is that if your
call doesn't get that, you may not get answered. So

(02:53):
would you prefer to talk to an aar yes who
may get it right? Or talk to no one? Probably?
Why not?

Speaker 3 (02:58):
I think if that's the binary, then I'm going to
go with the thank you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well that's what they said too, right. They said this
as a pitch. They like, we aren't replacing jobs. We
are literally putting the AI into jobs we cannot fill
because these people are overworked, they're doing overtime. It's like, okay,
that's probably a good use of AI.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
So tell us about Uncaged, this new company that says
they can make a durable, animal climate friendly material that
feels and even smells like leather.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I know, isn't that crazy? When you get when you
get into a car and it's got that new car
smell with the leather. That's to me just a fantastic smell.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
It is amazing. How do you feel about leather seats
though in a car?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I don't mind leather seats, see, I mean.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I'm generally pro leather seats, except that you just want
to make sure that the air conditioning in the car
is really good because if you are all sweaty and
then you're sort of peeling yourself off the seat, that's
obviously not real peasant.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
You're driving the wrong cars, Jack Tame. You can even
get cars these days that will cool your seat for you.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Oh, can you get seat coolers as well as heat?

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, you just have to get the right options package,
you know.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Seats cooler yeah, yeah, yeah, is that weird?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah? Blows like air and stuff through it. Anyway, they
have gone into the air. I think like up and
through it and keep it up and through what Unless
someone's completely been lying to me, But I believe you
we can cool your tooshue.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, I know, wow, I know that.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
There you go. They've got a client on the list.
You may not heard of it. Jaguar Land Rover. They
have just recently partnered with Hayundai. They're going to be
testing it out for their cars and trucks too. It's
it's crazy how much leather they use in some of
these cars. They said it can be between two and
fourteen cow hides to dick out the interior. So I guess,

(04:50):
depending on which premium package you pick, if you've got
all your seats and all your sides and things, you
have fourteen cows there. So you can imagine like, hey,
if we can do this without that sounds like it's
a good thing. They say they can deliver a carbon
footprint ninety five percent lower than out of leather, But
their big concern is around how durable it is, and

(05:11):
their concern is around how it handles heat. And so
one of the things that they mentioned about this test
that they're doing is they're putting it in super hot
temperatures for five hundred hours to make sure that it
actually stands up to you know, every day use or
your car sitting there for a few days in the
hot sun and it doesn't just sort of melt away.
Because it is a problem. And I don't know if

(05:32):
you were a person that had an Apple iPhone leather case,
but they got they did away with them, and they
changed into this synthetic material they call fine woven, right,
and they talked it up, said it was going to
be amazing, and it just was terrible. It didn't hold up,
and they've had to discontinue it. Right, So leather is
so durable, it's just not quite so friendly for the cowts.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Okay, Oh that sounds yeah, it sounds very interesting. I'd
be fascinated to see how it all kind of works out.
I guess fascinating to about these sequels you're telling us about, Paul.
Thank you very for Steinhouse bringing you all the tech
news you need on Newstalks EDB at seventeen to eleven.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalk SIDB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio