Apologetic AI is a Trend?

Wonder how well that works.    Having worked with consumer-computers since the very early days, never recall an attempt at apologies in this way. Even when we built avatars to represent products, it never had 'sorry' in its vocabulary.  We had to deal with errors.    What are our expectations here?   At what level do we expect apologies, or just dismiss it and lose our respect for the interaction? 

Apologetic AI Is A Somewhat Sorry Trend, Especially For Autonomous Cars   By Lance Eliot, the AI Trends Insider   

AI is starting to apologize.   

That’s the latest trend for AI that directly interacts with people. The notion seems to be that if the AI has to deliver unfavorable news or appears to have made a potential mistake, it ought to be civil about the matter and emit an apology. AI developers are either opting to include the apology-generating capacity or they are being pressed by system designers and managers to infuse the “sorry about that” capability.  

This might seem at first glance as a marvelous addition to an AI system and would presumably be valuable to construct. Sorry to say that the AI being apologetic has both upsides and downsides. 

Let’s begin by considering a context that will help to reveal the pros and cons of AI-powered apologies. Imagine that you apply online for a car loan and the AI system determines that you are not worthy, as it were, and promptly turns you down. The belief is that this would be an ideal moment for the AI to offer you a “heartfelt” apology.   

It might go something like this: Dear loan applicant, it is with great sorrow that I must inform you of the unfortunate news that your request to borrow funds to buy a car is hereby denied. Please know that you are not alone in having been spurned and accept this apology for any discomfort that might arise from this outcome. Sincerely, the AI system that reluctantly rebuffed your request.   

Do you think this apology will make the person feel any better about the AI-powered decision?   

Well, I doubt it would for most people, nonetheless, there is an emerging trend of having AI systems produce these kinds of messages.   .... '