Beware Hallucinating emails from the Passport Office (preumably written by AI)

djghk

Just a warning (based on my own bitter experience) not to rely on emails you receive from the customer service team at the Passport Office. I recently received a number of emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk which can only be described as hallucinations, since they contained information which is not true, has never been true, and caused great puzzlement to staff at the Passport Office in London when I arrived recently for my Urgent appointment. For example, one email explicitly stated that I could collect my new passport 30 minutes after arriving for an Urgent appointment (not withstanding the fact that HMPO Website says that the new passport will be available 4 hours later).

Fool me for trusting emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk. But the emails gave no indication that they had been written by AI which would have put me on my guard. (While I obviously have no proof, I presume these hallucinating emails must have been written by AI since I don't see how a human would have hallucinated something like this which the puzzled Passport Office staff quite reasonably convinced me has never been true, and cannot be given the various checks for a new passport take more than 30 minutes).

I have, of course, lodged a complaint not only about receiving hallucinating emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk but also about their failure to disclose the use of AI (if indeed that is the case) to generate untrue replies to passport applicants.

But until the Passport Office find a way to stop these hallucinations, strongly recommend passport applicants treat any information in emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk with extreme caution. 

MyRealNameToo

djghk said:

Just a warning (based on my own bitter experience) not to rely on emails you receive from the customer service team at the Passport Office. I recently received a number of emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk which can only be described as hallucinations, since they contained information which is not true, has never been true, and caused great puzzlement to staff at the Passport Office in London when I arrived recently for my Urgent appointment. For example, one email explicitly stated that I could collect my new passport 30 minutes after arriving for an Urgent appointment (not withstanding the fact that HMPO Website says that the new passport will be available 4 hours later).

Fool me for trusting emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk. But the emails gave no indication that they had been written by AI which would have put me on my guard. (While I obviously have no proof, I presume these hallucinating emails must have been written by AI since I don't see how a human would have hallucinated something like this which the puzzled Passport Office staff quite reasonably convinced me has never been true, and cannot be given the various checks for a new passport take more than 30 minutes).

I have, of course, lodged a complaint not only about receiving hallucinating emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk but also about their failure to disclose the use of AI (if indeed that is the case) to generate untrue replies to passport applicants.

But until the Passport Office find a way to stop these hallucinations, strongly recommend passport applicants treat any information in emails from help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk with extreme caution. 

Front line staff and the marketing department in many large organisations may have very different views from each other.

There are people who claim to have uploaded all their photos etc beforehand and received their passport in under 4hrs from the appointment. Looking on Reddit there are some claiming 15 minutes or less. 

I did it once but can't for the life of me remember how long it was, certainly dont remember having to kill 4 hours but could be wrong

user1977

Humans have been quite capable of making mistakes for millennia before AI was invented, so I'm not sure why you're so certain AI is involved!

djghk

user1977 said:

Humans have been quite capable of making mistakes for millennia before AI was invented, so I'm not sure why you're so certain AI is involved!

Mistakes are one thing, but hallucinating something which (according to the very puzzled staff I met at the London passport office) could not possibly be true is another matter. And the member of their complaints team who called me yesterday agreed it was highly unlikely this was something any human being working for the Passport Office would ever say. But yes, I have no proof it was AI (as opposed to a hallucination member of staff). Let's see what the investigation now underway concludes.

sheramber

My son was handed his  new passport at the end of his appointment. 

He was very surprised to get it then.