Some AI agents hand phone calls and other tricky tasks to real people, and the firms say they do not hide it

CNBC reports that AI agents still cannot reliably take actions across the web, especially anything that needs a phone call, so some startups pass those tasks to people. Dazzle AI chief executive Marissa Mayer says her firm checks the model's suggestions and sends some tasks to human contractors. Duckbill chief executive Meghan Joyce says her firm runs a marketplace of contract workers who take small tasks from agents, and that it does full background checks on its 1099 contractors. Wajo AI says it uses humans for phone calls and for CAPTCHA tests. CNBC adds that Meta employees raised privacy concerns about an internal test where contractors handled phone calls for Muse, and that a Meta spokesperson said Meta does not currently use humans to complete users' Muse requests.

• Before you hand an AI agent your bank, health or account details, check the service's help page for whether people can step in on your tasks, and what they can see.
• If you use an agent for calls or bookings, ask the company in writing how its contractors are screened and what happens to your data afterwards.

Source: CNBC. This is our short summary of their reporting. The paragraphs marked "Our read" and the things to do are SeedFoundry's opinion. The summary is drafted with AI tools. Image: Duckbill, from its own announcement. How we source and credit