I fear the day that artificial intelligence reaches the technical capability, cost, and availability that would enable telemarketers to become completely automated. Receiving calls from 'people' that work for free and never get tired of harassing you, 24/7, is not a pleasant thought.
Luckily it hasn't reached that point yet. I received calls from one telemarketing service out of Colorado a while back that seemed like it was a real person, but a 'Hey bud, how would you like it if I called you at home after midnight on a weekday?!?' threw it off. It seemed to be going through a list of pre-recorded questions, waiting for a response, then using voice recognition software to figure out what I said and compare it to a list of valid responses, looking for keywords. Too bad it wasn't programmed to recognize insults or threats of legal action...it kept calling me back after I hung up until I reported them. I don't know what exactly happened, but a couple days later I stopped being woken up late at night, at least by telemarketers. 
Regards,
John
Curiosity question that I haven't been able to find a straight answer to with Google:
Does there exist a computer program that can do a passable job as a telemarketer?
I ask because I think I might have spoken to a couple in the past six months. There was something about the voices and responses that made me think I was talking to a computer, not a human. It asked me questions that I responded to in a normal manner, and followed up on those responses in a sensible manner. But something made me wonder.
If it was a computer program, it was pretty good. Not the simple recorded message that you KNOW is a computer, but passably interactive. I'm just wondering if I was merely talking to a very mechanical-sounding human. Anybody know?
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