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Cancelling a car repair appointment

11 December 2025

I had made an appointment with the car repair place, but I needed to cancel it. So I called there, and an AI answered. Transcript from memory.

AI: "How can I help you?"
Me: "I need to cancel my appointment on Thursday."
AI: "Sure, what is your name and the exact date of your appointment?"
Me: "Vrandečić. That's V-R-A—"
AI: "Thank you. Your appointment has been cancelled. Can I help you otherwise?"
Me: "Yes. Could you please send me a confirmation via email?"
AI: "I cannot send you a confirmation via email, but I can send you a confirmation via WhatsApp. Would you like that?"
Me: "Yes, please, that's perfect. Thank you!"

And indeed, before the call was over I had a message that the "Your appointment has been cancelled." I would have appreciated some specifics, just to make sure it really understood me, but I was glad about the written confirmation.

I was quite happy with the whole interaction. It felt natural, I was served quickly, where I am otherwise used to call and wait for a long time on the phone. That felt great.

Alas, an hour later, I get an SMS with a link to check in early for my appointment in two days.

Frustrated I click on the check-in link. There's no option to cancel but there's a free text field in which I write that I have already cancelled via phone and to cancel the appointment.

The next day I get a reminder about the appointment the next day via email. No link or anything to cancel the appointment. I answer to the email that I have cancelled the appointment, please confirm, but never get a reply.

Today, one minute before the appointment, I get an SMS that my appointment has been cancelled. My assumption is that the technician was going through the check in data, and saw the free text field, and cancelled the appointment.

I'm quite amazed how fluent the conversation with the AI went. It was incredibly frustrating to then notice that the actual action has not been performed, even though it was confirmed. There are so many ways this could have been caught and fixed in time. To be honest, this showed me again the huge potential and upside of the whole thing, but also that we haven't yet figured out how to actually use it right. It will be an interesting decade ahead.

Simia

The new thing about the Semantic Web is not the semantics, it's the Web

11 November 2025

In my 2025 ISWC keynote (publication of recording is pending) I was using some text which I considered a quote: “The new thing about the Semantic Web is not the semantics, it's the Web.”

Now I thought the quote was by Chris Welty, and I thought it was in his 2007 ISWC keynote (what a nice recall!), but I didn't have the time to actually check it and I could be wrong.

On arrival in Nara I met Natasha Noy, and asked her if she remembered the quote. She did not, but said it didn't sound like something that Chris would say, and it sounded more like something Jim Hendler would say.

So in the talk itself, I had the quote, but said that I was unsure to whom to attribute it.

Later, Juan Sequeda and I were trying to figure out where the quote is from. Juan just asked Chris via messenger (he wasn't in Nara), but Chris said it's nothing he remembers saying. I think he also thought it sounds more like something Jim would say.

I asked Gemini, and Gemini thought it was Tim Berners-Lee. Gemini Deep Research on the other hand was guessing Jim Hendler, with input from Dean Allemang and maybe Tim Berners-Lee. Juan asked a paid version of ChatGPT, and that actually found the quote (“In the Semantic Web, it is not the Semantic which is new, it is the Web which is new”) in the Semantic Web FAQ by the W3C, attributed to Chris Welty. Finally, I asked ChatGPT (free version), and it attributed the quote to -- well, Denny Vrandečić. Myself. Very funny

So, I finally watched the 2007 keynote, and indeed: he gets very close to the quote, by combining what he said: “The emphasis is on Web, not on Semantic.” (24:20-25:00) and “It wasn't the KR in Semantic Web that was novel, it was the Web that was novel.” (39:40-40:00).

Now I can confidently attribute the quote to Chris Welty.

Update: there has been a twist to the story! Kingsley Udehen found the quote in slides by Tim Berners-Lee wrapping up ISWC 2005, Slide 3, two years before Chris' keynote. But -- attributed to Chris Welty! So the conclusion stands, just with an even older provenance.

Simia

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