back to article Oh God, here comes the artificially intelligent boss bot – look busy!

Finnish IT services firm Tieto has added software to a leadership team that oversees a recently formed data-focused business group. The bot, or "artificial intelligence agent," is referred to as Alicia T. It will have "the opportunity to participate in team meetings and cast a vote on business direction," according to the …

  1. Ole Juul

    I get it

    we'll soon have companies declaring that they've appointed smart-looking chairs to support executive decision making.

    Then it will actually make sense to address the chair.

    1. Pen-y-gors

      Re: I get it

      Sounds reasonable. My cats regularly sit in on board meetings, and probably make a more useful contribution than Cortana.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I get it

      We actually have this. I skipped a recent client meeting because I already knew that the requested change would be rejected due to being dumb (and the requester could handle it themselves, in a way that wouldn't affect the other 70 thousand clients,) and sent a post it note saying NO instead, which was attached to the chair.

      (they apparently had fun asking unrelated questions so they could laugh at the no response, but still, that didn't go into the minutes.)

    3. ma1010
      Holmes

      Re: I get it

      And so often, the chair actually is smarter than the manager/executive sitting in it.

  2. Yesnomaybe

    A publicity stunt.

  3. Wensleydale Cheese

    Code Executing Officer

    IT biz hires new decision-making CEO – a code-executing officer

    Does one of those have the power to put nasty bits of code in front of a firing squad?

    I can see a use for that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Code Executing Officer

      Send one to Redmond, we'll have Windows 10's data slurping woes dealt with in no time!

    2. Fatman
      Joke

      Re: Code Executing Officer

      <quote>Does one of those have the power to put nasty bits of code in front of a firing squad?

      I can see a use for that.</quote>

      So can I.....

      Like the people behind systemD.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does it get a 'golden handshake' if it bankrupts the company ? Lets hope it runs different code than your average human CEO.... then again bots have no need for yachts.

  5. Mark 110

    AI?

    Could we (journos and commentards allike) at El Reg stop using the term AI until it exists. Noone has invented an Artificial Intelligence yet so maybe we coud take the lead on killing the term until someone invents a machine capable of independent (i.e. not preprogrammed by a human) thought.

    As noted by a number of other commentards recently 'machine leaarning' fits the bill more accurately in most cases. Not this one by the sounds of it.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
      Pint

      Re: AI?

      Seconded.

      The motion carries.

      1. Chris G

        Re: AI?

        There are people who seem to think a human equivalent electronic smarty may be here by 2040, personally I doubt it, a lot of those touting AI are the same as those touting IoT. They have something to sell and salesmen are not above stretching the truth a little, or, of course, outright lying to you.

        Not too sure I would want to work in a company that uses a tarted up dealing machine to decide company policy.

    2. Jeffrey Nonken

      Re: AI?

      One science fiction author called this sort of construct an "artificial stupid", or AS for short, in one of his stories. (Or her. I don't remember which author, could be either.)

  6. fran 2

    I'd be interested in the BOFH's opinion on this!

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      He'd hack it (or bribe it with AI porn) to do his bidding.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      BOFH

      The BOFH has already dealt with this:

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/20/bofh_2008_episode_23/

  7. Owain 1
    Alert

    Hey, It looks like you're trying to overlook some fraud.

    Would you like to:

    * take a bung

    * embezzle the pension fund

    * launder some stolen assets

    * fire the CFO and install a puppet

    * or continue overlook fraud on your own.

    [] dont show me this tip again.

  8. Christoph

    Sacrificial goat

    "We apologise for (getting caught at) our latest mess-up, and we have fired the director responsible"

    1. Jonski

      Re: Sacrificial goat

      "We apologise for (getting caught at) our latest mess-up, and we have reprogrammed the director responsible"

      FTFY!

  9. M7S

    Robots making decisions - alas, seemingly nothing new here...

    See title

  10. Ben Bonsall

    Badass. Now we can hack the CEO to approve our pay rises and reject the board's.

  11. fidodogbreath

    the first Nordic company to place artificial intelligence in a position of leadership

    Now, there's a Guiness record.

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