- AI Voice Assistant Aurelian helps 911 call centers deal with non-nut calls as noise complaints and lost wallets
- Aurelian already lives in over a dozen US cities
- AI aims to free human senders to real emergencies and reduce waiting times
The idea that AI helps with emergencies rightly raise some suspicious eyebrows, but there may be a way for the technology to facilitate the requirements of overstretched 911 emergency operators without becoming an emergency in itself.
It is the course from a start-up called Aurelian, which has begun to roll a voice AI agent to help 911 shipping centers deal with the tidal wave of non-nut calls that come in every day.
Although we correctly tend to think of 911 as a direct line to help with life-or-death, it turns out that it is often the first number required what could only be called an emergency in a sitcom from the 1950s. Think lost wallets, illegally parked cars and high parties. It is the standard number that many call when they are annoyed, whether they are facing a real emergency, and someone has to pick up and handle this call, usually a human sender with a lot of training in getting you help as soon as possible, and by discovering when the call is not an emergency of any fantasy.
In Time 10 of 16 years, trying to triage four conversations at once, while only one, if even so many, is an emergency, it may not be the best use of their energy. Aurelian beats himself as a solution to this problem, not as a replacement for people in the position, but as a support service for them.
Aurelian’s answer is to use AI as sender for senders. If you call the 911 and Aurelian response, it introduces itself as an automated assistant and asks why you call. Complaints with loud music, Petty Theft Reports, questions about the removal of snow and similar non-emergency situations are handled through follow-up questions, concludes a report and directs the information to the relevant department. If the one who calls accidentally chooses the wrong line or begins to describe something that sounds like a true emergency, the system transfers the call directly to a human sender.
Since it launched last May, Aurelian claims it is the system at the other end of 911 for nearly five million people in the United States in these areas, Aurelian boasts that it handles about three-quarters of non-emergency situation calls that take about three hours a day of the kinds of calls that emergency shipments do not have to answer.
“911 is in a crisis: Serious understaffing and ever -growing responsibilities have made ECC’s overlay and overtime. At Aurelian, our sole purpose is to help them serve their community,” Aurelian CEO Max Keenan said in a statement. “911 Call machines are trained to handle emergencies, not parking complaints. Aurelian reduces burnout and helps telecommunicators to remain focused on the most critical situations.”
AI emergency
The narrow targeting of AI to solve the very clear problem with too many 911 calls and not enough people to answer them is remarkable compared to some of the broad plans for other AI developers. The company also raised just $ 14 million in a financing round to help it scale and to solve the imperfections for which any AI system is inclined.
The company also makes a point of trying to ease all guilds that people may have about an AI service that handles a job that is usually limited to people. The idea is that AI does not replace emergency workers, but that it can help filter the calls that transmitters are not intended to handle, but it can suck up all their time and energy.
They can save this focus to navigate the emotionally full, time -sensitive calls for real emergencies, those who require empathy, judgment and determination on their part.
It also changes the public’s experience. When you call in to report something that is annoying but not urgent, you are no longer waiting for a wait for 45 minutes just to be notified to fill out a form. You are talking to a voice that can analyze your problem and submit the correct report. And when you are in danger, there is a better chance that someone will pick up faster because they are not stuck with a complaint about a shopping cart left in a driveway. If we are looking for clues about how AI can actually improve society, this may be the form it takes.
