Am I Speaking to a Human?

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Alexa and Siri never say "like" or "mmm-hmmm" to buy themselves time. Instead, the virtual assistants from Amazon and Apple are brief and to the point when they speak. They're machines, after all, and their stilted cadence and brevity are reassuring. They show that we can still tell the difference between humans and robots.