Riot support staff called out after using AI and trying to cover it up
Riot GamesWhen a League of Legends player submitted a support ticket to Riot, they noticed that the name of an AI chatbot was left in their reply. This employee tried to send another email and hoped that no one would notice their mistake.
AI chatbots have grown ever prominent in recent years, with bots like ChatGPT exploding in popularity and allowing people to generate responses to questions in an incredibly short amount of time.
However, that doesn’t mean that those responses are by any means perfect. At this point in time, these chatbots are more of a tool to be used than a perfect solution to every problem. No matter how good a tool is, user error can result in some huge mistakes.
One such example was spotted in a support ticket, one that promised a League of Legends player they were connected with a Riot employee. This employee’s very human reply left the name of the AI chatbot they were using in there by accident, and they attempted to cover it up by sending another email and hoping they wouldn’t notice the first one.
League support staff seen using AI to respond to players
The usage of bots and automated replies within customer support is nothing new. When it comes to dealing with some of the most frequently asked questions and common issues with a product, having a bot that can spit out responses can really help when dealing with a ton of customers.
However, for those who need help with a specific issue or something a bit more serious, having the assistance of an actual customer service representative can be essential.
One League of Legends player who reported a player in one of their matches for inappropriate conduct in-game got a reply from support staff that so happened to leave the name of an AI chatbot in their reply.
This support member at Riot then tried to send another email with a corrected response, hoping that the person they replied to wouldn’t notice.
The original poster specified that they weren’t angry that AI was used to respond to them, but more that it wasn’t disclosed to them that they weren’t being responded to by a real person.
After raising concerns with the way that they were treated in relation to their ticket, this player got a response from other support staff at Riot addressing the usage of AI in this response.
“We’re still looking into exactly what happened here, but the short answer is no. Individual agents often use personalized macros to help respond to players more quickly, but we do not write responses using AI, or submit any player information into any AI platform.” This reply was addressed directly to this player from Riot Castmoore, someone who oversees other support representatives.
This post exploded on Reddit, prompting yet another response from a Riot employee.
While there are some pre-saved responses set out for support agents to use, the usage of AI is strictly prohibited here according to Smileyjoe. They confirmed that Riot doesn’t use character.ai (the chatbot that sparked this controversy) and that they’re transparent about when bots are used.
It was also specifically outlined that Riot doesn’t allow support tickets submitted from players to “go through any tool outside of our secure network”, which is one of the biggest concerns from players.
People in the thread agreed with OP and weren’t offended so much at the usage of AI. The problem is that it wasn’t disclosed and that an AI chatbot like character.ai isn’t a part of Riot’s secure network.
The usage of an open source or paid AI chatbot can lead to a number of security issues and customer information being leaked to other platforms, meaning that the usage of these bots for customer support could lead to players’ League of Legends account info getting leaked. And, considering that many players keep personal information including their credit card and bank account information saved on their account, it’s left some players concerned.
