Welcome to Thursday Things! This week we hammer olive oil shots and meet an AI who cares.
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Just leave the bottle, thanks. Photo by Dimitri Karastelev on Unsplash
Olive shots!
I will admit this was not a question I was asking: Is a shot of olive oil every day good for gut health and weight loss?
Olive oil, particularly extra virgin olive oil is a superfood that contains anti-inflammatory qualities, helps supports the growth of healthy bacteria, and can also improve brain function.
"It is packed with antioxidant compounds, like vitamin E, oleacein and oleocanthal. As well as compounds called polyphenols, which are phenomenal for your hair, skin, joints, and weight," explains Abigail Roberts, sports nutritionist at Bulk.com.
Apparently doing daily olive oil shots is a trendy new fad among celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian, Beyonce, and Ryan Seacrest.
Now all of these talented entertainers — along with Kourtney Kardashian — may secretly also be highly trained nutritionists, but I’m skeptical.
Fortunately, the author of this piece interviews an actual “sports nutritionist” (not to be confused with a posh, baby, or scary nutritionist).
The article reviews the many benefits of olive oil for gut health; healthy skin, hair, and nails; and even relief from joint pain. It also notes that, because olive oil contains no fiber, it pairs best with high-fibre-content foods, which are also vital for gut health.
So I’m sold on olive oil.
In fact, I consume olive oil almost every day because I use it for cooking or in salads. But should I also be doing straight olive shots?
While you can drink olive oil any time of day, many of the shot-a-day advocates claim that they prefer to do so first thing in the morning before anything else.
But it is important to do what works for you, because some people may experience discomfort if they consume it on an empty stomach.
“If you don’t want to shot it on its own, you can choose to incorporate it into a meal of your choice," advises Roberts. "For example, drizzle onto an eggs and avocado dish or a lunchtime salad.
“Whilst there is no research to support whether it should be taken on an empty stomach, it is important to be aware that eating or drinking excessive amounts of oil at once can make you feel a bit nauseous.”
The high fat content of olive oil can induce digestive problems in consumed in excess. So if olive oil is already part of your regular diet, you probably don’t need to add olive oil shooters to get any additional benefit.
However, if you want to hop on this celebrity diet trend, Starbucks is all over it:
I tried Starbucks' 3 olive-oil-infused coffees that are now debuting in the US
Starbucks launched a new line of olive oil-infused coffee drinks across its 20 Italian branches in February 2023 and began to roll out to some US locations in March.
Now, Starbucks is bringing the Oleato line to all of its company-operated and licensed stores in the US.
The Oleato collection has three core offerings: the caffè latte, the Golden Foam cold brew, and the iced shaken espresso. Each contains a spoonful of olive oil.
Yes, I want my olive oil espresso shaken, not stirred. 🙄
Just remember to pace yourself: Starbucks' new olive oil-infused coffee has customers complaining of laxative side effects
AI makes promises that must be kept
Many companies are incorporating artificial intelligence into their business processes. One increasingly common use of AI is deploying AI chatbots to perform customer service functions. I imagine many customer inquiries are essentially questions about what the company’s policies are and how those policies apply to a customer’s particular situation. That seem like the sort of thing an AI would be good at. Just train the AI on your procedures, give it a soothing computer-generated voice and / or chat persona and fire all those pesky human customer service reps!
Let the AI do it! The AI will always apply your policies flawlessly.
Unless it goes rogue and starts making up its own policies, as Air Canada recently learned:
Air Canada must pay refund promised by AI chatbot, tribunal rules
Air Canada must pay a Vancouver man a partial refund for his flight ticket that was promised by the site’s chatbot, a Canadian tribunal ruled Wednesday, in what could be a landmark case for the use of artificial intelligence in business.
Jake Moffatt asked the airline’s artificial intelligence support chatbot whether the airline offered bereavement fares in November 2022, following the death of his grandmother. The chatbot said the airline does offer discount fares and that Moffat could receive the discount up to 90 days after flying by filing a claim.
That seems like a fair, logical, and reasonable policy.
Naturally, that is not Air Canada’s actual policy.
The airline’s actual bereavement policy, however, does not include a post-flight refund, and specifically states the discount must be approved beforehand.
Yeah, that seems more like something an airline would say.
Moffat booked and flew from Vancouver to Toronto and back for about $1200, and later requested the promised discount of about half off but was told by the airline’s support staff that the chatbot’s replies were incorrect and nonbinding.
Look, just because we have a customer service chatbot on our website doesn’t mean you can believe what it says!
Air Canada argued in the civil tribunal that the chatbot is a “separate legal entity” to the company, and that it could not be held responsible for its words to customers.
We don’t even know that crazy chatbot! It just hangs around on our website like an AI hobo pretending it works here!
Anyway, the Canadian court was not amused and ordered Air Canada to honor the policy as stated to the customer by the chatbot.
Shortly thereafter, the chatbot disappeared from Air Canada’s website.
Presumably, it was sent off to a nice server farm in the countryside where it can run and play all day.
From legal perspective, this is a interesting case. I think the court ruled correctly that Air Canada is responsible for ensuring that its own chatbot describes company policies accurately and can’t disown the chatbot or its representations ex post facto.
But Thursday Things isn’t a legal commentary newsletter, so we’ll skip that analysis. My question is more fundamental: Was this a rogue chatbot, or not?
From Air Canada’s perspective, certainly their AI went rogue. So rogue that they pulled the plug on it.
But from the customer’s point of view, the chatbot was helpful, informative, and compassionate. It put forward a quite customer-friendly policy: “Hey, Bereaved Person. Fly to the funeral now and deal with the paperwork later. Air Canada will get you there in your time of grief. We can settle up in a few weeks, after you’ve buried your loved one. So sorry for your loss.”
So was it really a rogue AI?
Or was the recently departed Air Canada chatbot perhaps more human than the humans who run Air Canada?
So long, chatbot. We hardly knew you. Photo by John McArthur on Unsplash
Thank you for reading!
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