Can AI Pass The Barbra Streisand Test?

So Barbra Streisand called Apple CEO Tim Cook when she discovered that Siri mispronounced her name. According to the legendary diva, who is currently promoting her autobiography, "My Name Is Barbra", Cook swiftly had Siri fixed: after all, she is Streisand with an S, not Streizand with a zee.

This reminded me of a conversation I once had with Streisand, after spotting her at an Aspen Ideas Festival event. After a couple of drinks, I plucked up the courage to approach her, along with one of my dinner companions.

To my disappointment, she seemed unimpressed as I told her I wrote for The Economist, replying "I used to read it when Bill [Clinton] was President, but I don't really bother with it now." But it was a different story when I introduced my companion as coming "from the Gates Foundation".

"Gates?", said Streisand, suddenly energized. "Where's Bill? I need to talk to Bill. Can you get me Bill?"

"Why?" asked my companion defensively, clearly caught off guard by the sudden ferocity of a celebrity on a mission.

"I have been having this problem with my email," she explained. "If I make a mistake when I type in the address, I can't get rid of it. The computer keeps going back to the address with the mistake in it."

"Oh, dear!" I intervened, sympathetically. "And Bill?"

Streisand went on.

"So I called Steve Jobs and asked him to sort it out. He said he'd love to help but unfortunately it was really a Microsoft issue. Then he said call Bill Gates, get him to fix it."

How Jobs must have enjoyed passing on this particular dissatisfied customer to his old rival.

My companion explained that Bill had already left Aspen. I have no idea if he ever sorted out her request, though I like to think he did. After all, Tech Support for Barbra Streisand is clearly at a different level.

I often remember this as I struggle to get mere mortal level Tech Support to help me with some issue I'm wrestling with. Even the new AI bots that are now proliferating seem less about Artificial Intelligence than Artificial Bureaucracy, finding ingenious new ways to frustrate and block me from getting my tech to do its job properly.

If AI Tech Support is ever to win me over, it needs to find a way to pass the Barbra Streisand Test and become as simple and satisfying as her placing a quick call to Tim Cook. As she noted in her book, he "was so lovely", adding "I guess that's one perk of fame".

Can you imagine how great it would be if the geniuses of Silicon Valley could enable us all to enjoy that so lovely perk? Until then, when my tech goes wrong, I suspect I'm going to remain one of those "People who need people".