The AI ​​chatbot that the woman trained took away her job.

Every day, news is coming from different corners of the world that AI is taking away jobs from humans. Artificial intelligence is rapidly strengthening its grip in the corporate sector and is upsetting employees. One such shocking case has come to light from Australia, where a bank employee's job was taken away by the same AI chatbot that he himself contributed to training.

Catherine Sullivan, a former employee of Australia's largest bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has recently expressed her grief. Sullivan, 63, worked at the bank for 25 years but was suddenly fired at the end of July. Surprisingly, the chatbot she herself contributed to training took away her job.

Sullivan joined the bank in 2000 and was most recently working in the customer messaging team. On July 28, she was told her services were no longer needed. She broke down in emotion, saying, “I’ve been loyal for so many years and this is the reward? I worked with my heart and soul, wore the uniform with pride, but this is what I got in return.”

Until a few months ago, Sullivan was training the bank's chatbot, 'Bumblebee.' She wrote scripts for it, tested responses, and intervened when the bot couldn't resolve a customer's query. She expected to be reassigned to another role after the chatbot was implemented, but that didn't happen.

Sullivan said that I was unknowingly training the same chatbot that took my job. The bank admitted the mistake. After the layoffs, the Finance Sector Union (FSU) challenged the decision. The bank claimed that the chatbot was reducing 2,000 calls per week, but in August the bank admitted that the number of calls had increased rather than decreased after the staff reduction.

In a statement, the bank admitted that there was an error in its initial assessment process and that the 45 roles that were removed were not actually redundant. The bank also said that internal processes would be reviewed to ensure that such errors do not occur in the future.

Offered to return but refused
The bank later offered to bring back the affected employees. However, not all accepted it. Sullivan was also involved. She said that after 25 years of service and having faced such an experience, the positions she was offered were no longer suitable for her.