Emma Waidner

Rafferty

ENC2135

6/27/2023

B&D Game Reflective Essay

This podcast's source is the internet, and the podcast's author is Scientific American. I

feel they are reputable since the website finishes in.com rather than.com.co; if it ended

in.com.co, it would imply that Scientific American is not a genuine source to use; but, because it

ends in.com, Scientific American is legitimate and can be relied on as a source. The listeners

who can access the podcast's website as well as those who are curious about artificial intelligence

and bots and how they work make up the target audience.

The goal of this podcast is to provide scientific proof that if a bot is perceived as human,

it performs better than actual humans. The premise of this podcast is that when people learn they

have been interacting with a bot, the intelligence of the bot decreases. People who enjoy listening

to podcasts and those interested in how bots work and interact make up the discourse community

into which this podcast is entering.

The podcast's constraints are that most bots are not generally declared to be bots, and its

affordances are that bots are so intelligent that people are unaware they are dealing with them.

The podcast's rhetorical appeal is logos because facts and evidence are addressed and detailed

regarding how the bots are so intelligent that they can outperform humans at times. The podcast's
context is that bots can outperform humans in some scenarios, and humans fail to recognize

whether they're engaging with a bot or another human.

The podcast's genre is science because the author is a scientist and there is evidence

mentioned and proven in the program. The podcast revealed that the bot on the phone was more

successful and convincing than a human assistant, but as soon as it was discovered that it was a

bot, it quickly malfunctioned. Google also stated that they will obtain people's permission before

allowing them to interact with a bot. Other new information is that the bots did not reveal their

identity, that the bots are most effective when they hide their identity, that they did remarkably

well if they pretended to be humans, that they were more persuasive than humans themselves,

that the abilities they have are linked to their identity, and that it is unrealistic to ask for consent

with every interaction with bots.

The takeaway from this podcast is that bots are extremely intelligent and can even

surpass humans at tasks and other daily interactions such as playing a computer game, acting as

an assistant, arranging an appointment, and other regular daily interactions. Some other

takeaways from this podcast are that humans can’t really identify whether they are talking to a

bot or a human when having certain interactions on the phone and over the internet, but if it is

identified that they are a bot, then the intelligence level of the bot decreases significantly.

Another takeaway from the podcast is that if individuals were asked for their agreement before

interacting with the bots, the identity of the bot would be revealed, leading the bot's intelligence

to decline.