Atlanta Man Tries Reporting Strange Man to 911. He Was Allegedly Transferred to an AI Chatbot.
911 is the first thing that comes to mind for a person in a desperate situation. Human operators help victims stay calm before authorities arrive, and a 911 call can save a life. But according to AJay (@dudeinthedurag) from Atlanta, his 911 call was transferred to an AI chatbot.
“I had to call the freaking police because there was a man butt-naked behind some bushes self-pleasuring himself,” AJay told TikTok. He decided to call the Atlanta Police Department, reachable by dialing 911, but had to call twice.
“Because the first time I called, y’all transferred me to an AI chatbot, which then hung up on me?” AJay alleged. He continued to explain that the situation was dire. The man was hiding behind the bushes near a playground, and there were children nearby at the time.
“AI does not need to be replacing 911 operators”
“And then to top it all off, because the AI chatbot hung up on me, it sent me a text message to try and report my issue,” AJay said. According to the City of Atlanta, situations of immediate danger are classified as an emergency issue.
If the man did what AJay described, GeorgiaCriminalLawyer.com says he could be charged with public indecency, which is a criminal offense. For an idea of the consequences, an Arizona teacher was charged with four counts of indecent exposure after he peed in front of his class into a soda can.
“AI does not need to be replacing 911 operators, because I’m sitting here, trying to explain to this chatbot what the hell is going on, and it’s not understanding me. So, it hung up on me and sent me a freaking link to report a problem,” AJay expressed his frustration on the matter. AI tech is not always reliable. In fact, evidence shows that these chatbots may even lie when asked a question.
“What if someone was in danger, and they had to try and call the cops secretly, but you’re transferring them to AI chatbots? What if somebody was getting murdered right now?” AJay argued to show the severity of the issue.
When he made another call, AJay finally got in touch with another live representative. What the woman said on the other end of the line left him speechless.
“If it transferred you to the AI, it’s putting you in a queue, and it will dispatch someone once it gets down to that number,” the representative allegedly told AJay. “Fix that,” AJay said, exasperated by the situation.
The Atlanta Police Department responds to AI chatbot claims
The Atlanta Police Department acknowledged AJay’s story and issued a statement on Instagram.
“There has been misinformation circulating on social media regarding how 911 calls are answered,” the Atlanta Police Department wrote. Based on the information in their statement, the details matched AJay’s story.
The Atlanta Police Department claimed that 911 calls are answered by emergency communications operators and not AI chatbots.
They further alleged that AJay’s calls were “answered immediately by live operators with no wait time.” After 30 seconds of the first call, the operator supposedly transferred AJay to a “non-emergency automated assistant.” The department claimed that the automated assistant is monitored by a live operator.
They said that an APD officer went to the park and “provided the appropriate response” to the man that AJay reported.
But AJay made a follow-up video to respond to the police department.
“The problem that I had in my video and with the situation overall was that you guys assessed the situation as a “non-emergency” and transferred me to this “automated system,” which is clearly flawed because if I’m sitting here talking to this automated system and it chooses to hang up on me, that is indeed a problem,” AJay said. Essentially, his problem with the department is that the issue he raised was treated as a non-emergency.
“If that situation was a non-emergency, what else do you guys consider non-emergencies?” he added. AJay said that he has now filed an FOIA request for the call logs.
(featured images: dudeinthedurag)
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