There's a contrast between Pi and the kind of chatbot discussed in the article. When we talk to Pi we don't expect it to do anything for us - it just gives advice and makes suggestions that we can take or leave. The resulting stream of tokens matches our expectations enough to satisfy us.
A chatbot on a company's website however, probably we are talking to that because we want something to happen. "Please fix my account", "my last bill was wrong" etc. As the chatbot isn't integrated with the company's processes it can't actually change the state of the outside world and so talking to it will be a frustrating experience. I wonder if this will improve if/when chatbots get better integrated with systems? Will companies even dare to do this for real?
It’s clearly got issues but it’s tuned to be spookily charming
Very much uncanny valley for chat
For example, this person literally has an ongoing chat with Pi to "help find enjoyment in daily life" via the voice interface. Not only that but basic help with research etc... instead of googling. That's amazing and staggering. I mean it's literally like the movie Her (without the romantic subtext).
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pi-your-personal-ai/id64458159...