We seldom get a telephone call worth answering on our land line. Most of them are faked to have our area code, sometimes our exchange. I pick them up less in expectation of a useful message than to keep them from going to the answering machine, which will then beep until somebody goes to hear and clear messages.
Automatic dialing machines, whether for anticipated dialing with live operators or for recorded messages, are programmed to hang up if one does not speak within some seconds of picking up. (I think the term is "voice energy detected"). This makes it sensible to pick up and just say nothing. If a friend, or a simply a person who has entered your number is calling, that person will probably say something--"Hello?"--after a few seconds of silence. An automatic dialler will drop the call, for there are thousands more to make.
Some of those with recorded messages economize by starting the message at once. One that I hear a couple of times a week runs
Hi, yeah, this is Shari, and I'm a senior executive with our
Sometimes Shari goes on to "mortgage team" before disconnecting. Less frequently, I hear
Hi, this is Chelsea. I'm in sales with
I forget with what: something automotive, I think.
It is my impression that there is a also a Carly, but I haven't heard from her lately.
Then, and this seems to reach my cell phone more, there is
Hello. I am an AI bot, and...
I suppose that the AI bot will speak its message through without hanging up, though I have never verified this; it goes on well past the point where Shari or Chelsea would have disconnected. It speaks to the prestige of artificial intelligence that someone should have recorded the message so. There may be some sophisticated programming behind the message, but it sounds to me as if it is coming from an interactive voice-response (IVR) system, such has been around for a long time.
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