Traitors star Rachel inspires AI pint price checker

Rachel Duffy was so good at tricking fellow contestants on The Traitors that she has inspired an AI alter ego which phones pubs to check the price of their pints.

A US engineer, who is a fan of the TV show, has used artificial intelligence to create a "voice agent" with a Northern Ireland accent, which he named 'Rachel'.

On St Patrick's Day weekend AI Rachel called more than 3,000 bars across the island of Ireland asking how much they charge for a Guinness.

Matt Cortland said the cost "varies wildly" from pub to pub and he wanted to create an online price comparison site to promote good value.

He explained he needed an AI voice agent which could interact naturally with pub staff and convince them to answer questions.

He specifically looked for a voice like Duffy's because she sounds "so trustworthy".

"We're just finished watching the Traitors, she did such a spectacular job," Cortland told BBC News NI.

"She convinced the whole castle, she convinced me."

Duffy won the fourth series of the show, along with fellow traitor Stephen Libby, by fooling other competitors into believing they were faithful players.

Cortland did not use Duffy's voice, but instead searched samples of other people's voices which had been submitted to an AI lab.

He settled on a Northern Ireland accent as a "homage" to Duffy but also because the voice "sounded and worked correctly" within his AI project.

"It's a variety of different factors, but broadly speaking it was modelled off of the concept of how good Rachel was in having chat and making people feel at ease."

As reported by TechEU, out of the 3,000+ pubs AI Rachel phoned, 2,052 answered and more than 1,000 told her the price of their Guinness.

Cortland collated the responses to create Guinndex - an online index where customers can track and report the price of pint in their local boozer.

He found the most expensive place was Dublin, home of the black stuff, where a pint was €6.75 (£5.84) on average, although many pubs charged considerably more.

The cheapest pint was in County Laois, costing €5.38 (£4.66).

Cortland noted "only a handful" of pubs appeared to realise they were talking to an AI voice agent.

But whether they knew if Rachel was real or not, some had a bit of banter with the price-conscious caller.

A Kilkenny bartender laughed at AI Rachel's question and offered to pay for her pint.

"They're normally €6.20, but if you can't afford one, we'll buy you one."

When AI Rachel asked a pub in Derrygonnelly, County Fermanagh for their price, a bartender joked: "Twenty-five pound.

"But if you're coming in for a wee drink, I'll give it to you for a fiver."

Doogie's Bar owner John Doogan told BBC News NI he could not remember if he took the AI call but agreed the response "sounds like something I would say".

He said he had "no problem" with a price comparison index.

"We're sort of snookered here because Diageo (owner of Guinness) put the price up a few weeks ago."

Doogan lamented that "the customer always pays" for corporate price hikes.

Not all calls went to plan - in Lisburn AI Rachel "got trapped" talking to another AI phone system.

According to Cortland's logs, the virtual hotel receptionist kept apologising, AI Rachel kept saying "Oh, dear" and no pints were priced during the confusing call.

In Donegal, a suspicious bartender quoted €5.80 (£5) a pint but then "launched a full interrogation" of their potential customer.

"How many are coming? Where are you coming from? What part of the country are you from? Who's this I'm speaking to?" they asked.

But unlike The Traitors, the voice agent could not tell lies if asked a direct question.

"The AI was programmed to be truthful and to explain that they're just doing a price index and that they are AI," Cortland explained.

Originally from New Jersey but now living in London, he said his price index is not designed to damage Irish pubs as he visits them regularly.

He "fell in love" with Ireland after arriving on scholarship about 15 years ago and eventually married a Dubliner.

"One of my major tenets here was to do no harm, I really want to do no harm to any pub."

Cortland has worked in every part of the industry, from dishwasher to bartender to owning a firm which operated several pubs around the UK and US.

Knowing the pressures pub owners face, he insists Guinndex is not about naming and shaming bars.

"I try to highlight hidden gems, perfect-rated pubs, places to go for a fiver or less."

He argued if some pubs were worried about being exposed for their high prices then they should not charge so much.