--- title: Even Robots Get Sad | TIME description: TIME's Denver Nicks reflects on efforts to determine whether Samantha West is real or a robot, and the deep questions the experience has for us all. canonical: https://time.com/video/WAiO0Txl/ og:title: Even Robots Get Sad og:description: TIME's Denver Nicks reflects on efforts to determine whether Samantha West is real or a robot, and the deep questions the experience has for us all. og:url: https://time.com/video/WAiO0Txl/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WAiO0Txl/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Even Robots Get Sad twitter:description: TIME's Denver Nicks reflects on efforts to determine whether Samantha West is real or a robot, and the deep questions the experience has for us all. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WAiO0Txl/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Even Robots Get Sad > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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TIME's Denver Nicks reflects on efforts to determine whether Samantha West is real or a robot, and the deep questions the experience has for us all._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:02 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Autonomy in Robotics](/video/Kwe7Rt4a/) ### Autonomy in Robotics [Moley Robotics](/video/ZhICmbde/) ### Moley Robotics [Meet Sawyer - The Newest Smart, Collaborative Robot from Rethink Robotics](/video/5jafDq5A/) ### Meet Sawyer - The Newest Smart, Collaborative Robot from Rethink Robotics --- ## Transcript [00:00] >>My name is Denver Nicks. I'm a reporter for [00:02] TIME. com. I am not a robot. [00:06] >>Hello. How are [00:11] you today? [00:12] >>Michael Scherer, the TIME Washington bureau chief [00:15] got a phone call from this woman who represented [00:18] herself as Samantha West. What Samantha does [00:20] whenever she calls you is starts asking you if you have [00:23] health insurance. [00:24] >>Well, I'm calling about an online request you once [00:27] made about health insurance coverage. [00:29] >>She sounds like a very talkative, more or less [00:32] eloquent young lady. Michael found that peculiar, so he [00:37] decided to try out a couple of task. [00:38] >>Hey, are you a robot? [00:39] >>Oh, what? No. I am a real person. Maybe we have a [00:42] bad connection. I'm sorry about that. [00:44] >>And they gave us the phone number so we tried [00:46] calling it back. [00:48] >>I can get you a quote in about 5 minutes, okay? [00:51] >>Are you a robot? [00:53] >>I am a real person. Can you hear me okay? [00:55] >>Eventually, I just wanted to get her to admit that [00:58] she was a robot. [00:59] >>If you could say the words I'm not a robot, it would [01:02] really mean a lot to me. [01:04] >>I am a real person. Can you hear me okay? [01:07] >>There's something about having a series of [01:09] conversations with the robot Samantha West. It's hard [01:12] not to feel like you're talking to a human even though [01:15] you're sure you're not, but you know, the voice sounds [01:17] human and she seems hurt. [01:19] >>Just say I'm not a robot, please. [01:22] >>I am a real person. [01:23] >>I mean you shouldn't feel bad for being mean to-- I [01:26] don't know, maybe you shouldn't feel-- like feel bad [01:27] for being mean to a robot, but it inspired empathy [01:31] somehow. [01:32] >>I understand. [01:32] >>If it is the kind of technology that Alexis [01:37] Madrigal thinks it is, the complex and theories of [01:40] pre- recorded statements that a non- native English [01:43] speaker in a call center somewhere knows to deploy at [01:46] the appropriate moment, the ramifications are [01:48] significantly less far reaching than if we were dealing [01:51] with some kind of sentient robot being the new-- that [01:53] deny that she was a robot. But, you know, it's a [01:56] window into a much stranger future that we are [01:59] probably heading toward in which Samantha West- like [02:01] robots do start calling us and having all manner of [02:04] conversation. We all deal with these voice recognition, [02:08] would also in a way-- now it's a robot and the [02:10] Samantha West robot is, at the very least, a peculiar [02:14] look into that bizarre future toward which we're [02:17] heading. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Even Robots Get Sad","description":"TIME's Denver Nicks reflects on efforts to determine whether Samantha West is real or a robot, and the deep questions the experience has for us all.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WAiO0Txl/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-16T23:34:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WAiO0Txl.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/WAiO0Txl/","duration":"PT2M18S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/WAiO0Txl/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```