On the Coming Chatbot Revolution (computerworld.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are all pursuing AI-powered chatbots — an intersection between several popular technologies: personal assistant software, search engines, machine learning, and social tools. Right now, while they're still building these chatbots, developers are cheating a bit. Facebook is using real humans to answer questions the AI can't. Google answers tough questions from a database populated with movie dialog. Microsoft scans social media to find the most popular answer, and offers that to inquisitive users. But software becoming conversational comes with hazards: "Because human beings are complex creatures plagued by cognitive biases, irrational thinking and emotional needs, the line between messaging with a friend and messaging with AI will be fine to nonexistent for some people." It sounds like an Asimov-era sci-fi trope, but it's already happening in China.

Comments

Chatbot therapist...

[fahrbot-bot]

"Because human beings are complex creatures plagued by cognitive biases, irrational thinking and emotional needs, the line between messaging with a friend and messaging with AI will be fine to nonexistent for some people."

And how does that make you feel to be because human beings are complex creatures plagued by cognitive biases, irrational thinking and emotional needs?

Re: This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeezus. Thats the most depressing thing I've ever read.