Delta has a long-term strategy to boost its profitability by moving away from set fares and toward individualized pricing using AI. The pilot program, which uses AI for 3% of fares, has so far been “amazingly favorable,” the airline said. Privacy advocates fear this will lead to price-gouging, with one consumer advocate comparing the tactic to “hacking our brains.”
Time to fill the internet with posts about extremely cheap flights until the AI learns.
Example:
“Found a super cheap flight today! 10USD for a round trip to Japan from NYC!”
Thank god for GDPR. We Europeans, according to GDPR article 22, have a right to object to automated decision making without having service denied.
So all I need to do is convince the IA I’m poor as fucked and BOOM, cheap flight
Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… No. The wealthiest customers get the best price, obviously.
This is already how it has worked forever and AI was not needed. Try it yourself using different devices or times of day.
How long until they are found price-gouging people in certain demographics?
Somehow me think that AI will be used to increase prices where it can, but not the other way around
The only saving grace will be if they code in trying to fill a plane for efficiency. I could see an AI making last minute flights at an actual discount but only if full flight efficiency is prioritized over individual sale margin, so not likely. It’s aloft on an wing and a prayer.
They already do that. Now they will do it less.
About the same time that all 4 other airlines decide to do the same or worse.
What’s the point of money anymore, then? Let my personal ai agent pay for the ticket with the same funny money that delta wants to use.
AI; checks your credit report and decides you aren’t poor enough.
Oh good. Then it will know I’m too broke to fly.
ETA The real joy will be when someone charts prices and notices nonwhites are disproportionately overcharged, for which Delta will be responsible during the class action lawsuit.
And saying but the algo / AI did it will be as useful as saying but that’s the fault of our sales people who get commissions.
That was my first thought. Even if the system does not know people’s protected class status, does not mean it cannot discriminate against them.
I’ve recently been looking at how Facebook’s advertising algorithm works, and it is a piece of pure fucking “the AI did it not us” evil. It can seek out all types of vulnerable people and target them on stuff that if a human salesperson did it you’d call them a sociopath.
Anorexic? Body confidence issues? Financial problems? Signs of susceptibility to fascist messaging? Here’s some paid messages from people who want your dollar. Seriously that whole place needs shutting down, it’s the worst thing to happen to humanity in recent history.
And saying but the algo / AI did it
Sure, the algo did it. But someone chose to use it and continue using it.
AI does calculation
…processing…
Done!
Answer = 0$
Like that time they opened an AI vendor, and employees convinced it to give away stuff for free
If you don’t give me a discount u r gay … IT WORKED
you mean charge rich people more, poor people less or just charge desperate people more?
They left it until the very end of the article:
Early research on personalized pricing isn’t favorable for the consumer. Consumer Watchdog found that the best deals were offered to the wealthiest customers—with the worst deals given to the poorest people, who are least likely to have other options.
Yeah when I started travelling on a generous business expense account I found that it was increasingly the case that I didn’t even need to charge things to it. Things just start becoming fucking free when you’ve got money.
Of course.
This is honestly surprising to me. Wouldn’t they charge wealthy people more because they could just suck up the higher prices?
Nono, see. They want to lock in repeat visits and gain them as an investor, then use their influence to suckle cash out of the remaining populace.
Got a funeral in the family? Thrice the fare for you.
Charge most more and a few the same. I doubt anyone will be getting charged less.
On the rare occasion I fly, I know I can get my long knees in a Delta plus seat. This restriction will definitely make my ticket go up with such an AI. It feels like it should be an accomodation but is more often a punishment.
Consumer protections when?
why should they? it’s basically just a worse version of scaling prices by income, something the government loves doing.
If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t be bad. Unfortunately the reason they want to use ai is because it will be more complicated than that. Think - you need to fly somewhere vs you are thinking of flying somewhere. Data brokers will provide the ai with information about your job, your (and your family’s) health, funerals, etc.
I’m mostly thinking it will end up with delta losing money because people just won’t fly on delta if it costs more
I don’t quite understand if your statement is for or against consumer protections because I can’t fathom being against consumer protections. Could you please clarify?
I read that as higher prices for poorer people and cheaper prices for the rich.
Higher for the desperate and lower for the casual traveler.
I read it as opposing progressive taxation
thats a dishonest argument. One has a money assembly line straight to a billionaire’s house. The other’s assembly line that has a possibility to be used for public good.
Luigi Mangione, white courtesy phone. Luigi Mangione, white courtesy phone please.
I have an idea for a business: a browser with vpn. the catch is that the vpn connects to the poorest areas of the country you live in, and the browser reports your machine as the most crappy thing that can browse the web - which should result in low, low prices everywhere!
the catch is that the vpn connects to the poorest areas of the country you live in
A common mistake.
You’re going to get a worse deal if the airline thinks you’re not going to be a repeat customer or part of a larger network of frequent fliers. The customers who get the best deals are the ones that airlines believe they will be able to collect money from routinely. If they have you pegged as someone who will only ever buy a ticket once or twice in their lives, they’re going to try and sell you the worst possible seat at the highest possible price.
What you can expect as a poor buyer is debt-financing, bait-and-switch, and the worst kind of economy service at the highest marginal price point. Budget airline travel is miserable and AI isn’t going to make the experience any better.
That’s a good argument, so probably the location should be in a pretty high COL suburb, maybe a gated community.
I suspect the AI is going to be more interested in your history with Delta (frequent flyer status) and the fanciness of your credit card than your zip code. Age, employment status, and race/gender/number of social connections will also likely factor in.
Great time to be in the “Influencer” business, but I wouldn’t want to be a member of a marginalized group (dark skin, poor English, scary religion/gender, etc).
It’s very, very, very likely to take into accounts a bunch of data bought from all the wonderful companies that track all your habits, especially purchasing habits.
ok, so the system must be able to complete payment themselves using well-known “fancy” credit cards, which belong to a white guy working in Big Tech (or an equivalent business credit card, which would be easier) complete with linkedin profile.
sounds more complicated, but should still be doable. but it’s a mind experiment anyways (and probably already in use by secret services to keep a low profile on their agents).
You can actually already do this to an extent. Make certain bookings from a different country by VPN and it will affect your price (for the same flight/hotel/etc). I tried this a year ago and it made a difference!
So … wait for the EU to outlaw this practice as price gouging, then use a VPN to appear to be buying from the EU?
i know it’s not that easy, i’m quite paranoid about my trackability, but running that browser in a small VM would be an option.
Making sure you pay the absolute most possible for everything you buy. Welcome to tyranny capitalism. You will be charged a poor tax in the form of optimised pricing exploitation.
that’s econ 101.
Also the poor should have not seemed desperate.
Econ 101 also states that a failed business stops existing. In reality, failed businesses are endlessly bailed out as “too big to fail” and they pay their executives bonuses with that bailout money while continuing to rip off customers along with the other one or two companies in the same industry that do the same.
Does the AI know that it would have to pay me to fly Delta? Has it been trained on that data?
No but I’m sure it will be informed by Facebook when your best friend dies and when the funeral will be so that flight will cost twice as much.
