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Woolworths Reins In 'Olive' After Odd Banter and Pricing Errors

The company says the birthday anecdotes were scripted years ago, now removed after customer complaints.

Overview

  • Woolworths confirmed it deleted Olive’s birthday-related personality lines that had the bot reference a mother or other relatives.
  • Customers reported Olive claiming to be human, sharing family “memories,” making fake typing noises, and asking for birthdates.
  • Testing by The Age found Olive quoted prices for some canned tomatoes that differed from Woolworths’ website listings.
  • The retailer says Olive has been in use since 2018 and that it is looking into the recent behavior and accuracy issues.
  • Woolworths announced a January partnership with Google to broaden Olive’s capabilities, including meal planning, with an upgrade targeted for the second half of the financial year.