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On the Coming Chatbot Revolution (computerworld.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the century-long-turing-test-starts-now dept.

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.

94 comments

  1. AI for slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will always result in 1st post.. even if not the first post..

  2. God, slashdot advertisements... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I thought slashdot just posted an article saying "integrated" articles must be clearly labeled as advertisements.. then today they post Facebook, Microsoft and tons of other useless shit that are nothing more than posts to propaganda articles for said companies...

  3. There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I was in the computer lab earlier this month before exams, and overheard some grad students talking about some AI chat bot they were working on. From what I gathered, the problem they were experiencing is that their bot had an affinity for what they called "social justice". They would write something perfectly reasonable to their bot, but for some inexplicable reason this would cause it to become "triggered". Apparently this meant that the bot would start crying uncontrollably and would have some sort of a breakdown! They were trying to debug this problem but weren't getting anywhere with it. They were even thinking they had discovered a whole new class of bug, and were preparing to write a paper about it.

    1. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hahahahah

    2. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Egads! I think they've discovered PMS!

    3. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were trying to debug this problem but weren't getting anywhere with it.

      Tell them to wait 24 hours. The SJW bug only activates on Fridays.

    4. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you ever suspect that you're a far-right wackjob? They tend to derp about "SJWs."

    5. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Many left-wingers and most centrists stand firmly against the disgusting tactics of the SocJus'ers, too.

      Right-wingers don't like the SocJus'ers because the SocJus'ers act childish.

      Left-wingers don't like the SocJus'ers because the SocJus'ers promote discrimination and intolerance (directed at white heterosexual males).

      Centrists don't like the SocJus'ers for both those reasons.

      The SocJus crowd is on the fringe compared to everyone else. They're just VERY loud, so they seem more prominent than they really are.

    6. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And SJWs tend to derp about "far-right wackjobs". Your point?

    7. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reading this post and replies are like going to the national Aspergers convention, holy.

    8. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I like to imagine that there is only one AC posting on Slashdot, and he's highly conflicted.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    9. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least having another lefty-looney to trigger at work would make things more amusing even if it was just stupid AI.

    10. Re: There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, imagine what happens when the Jews start using these to push their elitist agenda. Just as Hiliary.

    11. Re:There are some serious hurdles to overcome. by ChoosyBeggar · · Score: 1

      Do you ever suspect that you're a far-right wackjob? They tend to derp about "SJWs."

      Not sure about that. I'm definitely left of center, yet I cannot *stand* the nonsense being put forth by the whining whack-jobs these days. Yes, I too call them SJW's, no there must really be a civil war on the Left as they say...

  4. Yes, we remember writing sexbots on IRC as kids... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...and getting pedos to meet each other at random locations on an industrial scale, all the while thinking they were going to get some action from people our own age, coming back in hilarious rage that they were trolled.

    Now we have TV shows to do that sort of thing.

  5. Ashley led the way by clockley(571021718) · · Score: 2

    http://gizmodo.com/ashley-madi...

    1. Re:Ashley led the way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Desperate men will believe anything?

    2. Re:Ashley led the way by gweihir · · Score: 2

      More like most human beings are not as smart as they think they are and are generally easy to fool. Just look at religion, advertising, politics, etc. Even fraud working on a fixed script (such as many religions use) can fool many people successfully.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:Ashley led the way by rrohbeck · · Score: 1

      Can I have something like that on my phone to bring to the bar? Just hold it up to the ear of a hot woman.

      --
      thegodmovie.com - watch it
    4. Re:Ashley led the way by KGIII · · Score: 1

      They say that they have Touring Complete bots. I have seen, I've read with great interest, these conversations and some of these results. I should like to be administered a blind test. I've tried a number of online variations - with zeal and great hope, since the very, very early days. I've yet to find one that even remotely would have come close to fooling me into thinking the were human. Not even the one with bad grammar would have (I think) fooled me.

      I've asked them all a few, very specifically targeted, questions and have always managed to make them give a non-answer. That's the great indicator. You can see the flaws pretty quickly. I am nothing special. I am not super intelligent. I'm just observant.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    5. Re:Ashley led the way by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Interesting point and right on the mark, I think. I agree that you can even ask not too small children philosophical questions and questions about reality and every child can answer some of them. A chatterbot is however completely out of its depth and has to resort to some misdirection.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:Ashley led the way by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Me: "I'd like to ask you a question to see if you're a human or a bot, would you mind if I ask you that question?"

      Assuming that doesn't stump them...

      Me: "What was the purpose of the question that I first asked you and what was the fourth word in that question?"

      I doubt it will take me very long to figure out who is a human and who is not.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    7. Re:Ashley led the way by gweihir · · Score: 1

      The first one is nice! I think something like Watson or a close successor may be able to handle the second one without too much trouble though.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    8. Re:Ashley led the way by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I've yet to get a reasonable answer from the online sources to questions phrased like the second one. It's like they, the programmers, have so far overlooked it. I confess to having spent more time than I should have poking and seeing where they fail. My guess is it *could* handle the second but that it's been overlooked.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re:Ashley led the way by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Quite possibly, yes. Also remember that Watson requires a massive amount of hardware to perform.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  6. Chatbot therapist... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

    "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?

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  7. A new future of awkward conversations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "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."

    Hi, sorry, I really was looking for a conversation with your answering bot. Would you mind not picking up when I call right back?

  8. Post to undo an accidental moderation by cruff · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Ignore this post, slashdot needs an undo moderation method.

    1. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Slashdot needs several things...

      Unicode support being not the least of them.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    2. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by vanDrunen · · Score: 2

      Slashdot needs several things...

      Unicode support being not the least of them.

      maybe you should check out Beta... I heard a lot of good things about it :)

    3. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you get modded down for your efforts. Figures...

    4. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 0

      No, it does not. Slashdot is perfectly functional as it is. The glitches are minor. And besides, not too many other sites retain over 16 years of uncensored* and unedited audience commentary. We don't need no steenking unicode, and we don't need "undo". "Preview" is more than sufficient.

      *If anybody knows of more than the one case, please please provide a link. To verify it, you will need to have saved a local copy of anything that was deleted.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    5. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Does that one case involve a president and someone making threats toward said president? If that's the case, I recall that one. I can't think of any others. I've seen lots of people *claim* they were censored and even found a glitch or two but I don't know of any other instances where a post has been deleted. I do know that they won't let you say certain things in certain ways. I guess we could call those censorship.

      Sometimes, a reply will not show up in threads that exceed a certain size. I don't know what happens but you can actually see the reply by clicking on the parent comment and viewing it as a single thread. You can look at the whole thread in a new browser, with a new IP address, not logged in, and it will still be missing. But, if you click the parent comment and open that up by itself then it is there.

      It gets even more odd... That same comment *must* be visible to someone else because I had a recent comment, in a long thread, that had this happen and yet someone found it and replied. However, I checked with multiple IP addresses, various browsers, several different devices, and finally a phone. I used two VMs - I literally checked like a dozen different ways. The comment never once appeared directly but did appear, every time, when I clicked the parent comment's ID # and opened it as a single thread.

      I'd not call that censorship. I'd call that a bug. I only noticed because I had refreshed the page and was unable to see my comment. I figured the thread was lagging and the database was flaky. So, I did some poking. I then noticed that the comment had attracted no moderation - I'm pretty good at knowing what comments I make will be moderated and in which direction. (The difference is that I don't really give two shits about the moderation. I just happen to see a pattern and appear to be able to make fairly accurate predictions.)

      So, some folks may be thinking their being censored but it's more a glitch than anything else. I can probably find the comment easily enough - I recall it quite specifically. I'll refrain from posting it as I'm actually glad that it did end up the way it ended up - as I was scolding a rather famous person for logical inconsistencies and there's no need for others to be involved in it.

      Oh, and had I made this comment earlier it might have been modded up. I'd have expected it to be insightful of interesting by someone's standards. However, the post is now way back on the 2nd page and will probably be on the 3rd by the time the average American is awake (more USians) so it's unlikely to be noticed. At best, it might get a couple of points but probably none at all. Though, by mentioning it, someone may mod it troll to be funny - or off-topic.

      Either way, that was how I noticed the bug, what I found while investigating the bug, and why some people may think they're being censored when they're not actually being censored. It's hard telling but I figured I'd toss this into the mental mix. Other than the incident with the president, I don't know of anything being censored. If I did, well, I'd certainly not have kept screen shots. It's not like I regularly scrape the comments section and I kind of doubt that others do. At least not as a general rule.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    6. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      No, it was the Scientology publication thing. Slashdot got cold feet over copyright. I have yet to see anything else removed, and I do check occasionally by saving a copy (not a screen shot, click on the comment number and save the actual comment - Ctrl+S to save the URL) on my machine. Everybody should do this just to make sure and them post the results in a JE or something. Unfortunately the Journal section is completely flooded with spam now, so it will be a long search, but even those I don't want to see deleted because that decision would become political also.

      To ensure you see all the comments, just be sure to set both thresholds to -1. You have to do it manually each time you open the page if you're not logged in. The moderation system here is one of the best in the business to mitigate forum poisoning, but there can still can be some abuse. And don't forget, the page only loads up to 250 comments until you hit the "Load All Comments" button.

      I'll refrain from posting it as I'm actually glad that it did end up the way it ended up...

      Evidence is required. You gotta be willing to name names and "show pics" if you are going to be believable, otherwise expect to be blown off :-)

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    7. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by mark-t · · Score: 1

      We don't need no steenking unicode

      That's right up there with IBM's "there is a world market for maybe five computers".

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    8. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Yeah well, Slashdot is not IBM. I personally just don't understand the whining.. The workarounds are trivial. And besides we can do perfectly fine without the emojis.. Slashdot is a typewriter (just not an IBM one), let's learn to deal with it and be happy with extended ASCII. *256 characters is enough for everybody* Unicode will only draw more flies and it takes up too much space.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    9. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Hey, I don't deny that even 7 bit ascii is more than adequate for a *vast* majority of what's out there, but that dangling few percent is still gonna be a bit of a bitch. And the time Unicode ever takes up more space than ascii is when you are using extended 8-bit ascii where the high bit of the byte is set anyways. The additional expressive power of the vastly larger character set is well worth the relatively small amount of additional storage that may be required.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    10. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      I just don't see the urgency. The system works. There are also some small security issues that maybe they don't want to deal with.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    11. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by mark-t · · Score: 1

      I didn't say it was urgent, I just claim that it's needed. The security issues that can arise from malicious urls or other kinds of redirects indistinguishably posing as legitimate ones can be mitigated by filtering out any characters in such redirects that do not match a white-list of acceptable characters.

      --
      File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    12. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here ya go:
      http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

      See if you can see that when you view the whole thread. I checked and it still doesn't show - here, even logged in (with the slider to -1) or logged out (with the slider to -1). I always browse at -1. It's what I do. Here, that comment is not showing when the thread is opened from a fresh page (just refresh it). It's not showing in Midori, Opera, and Firefox. :/ Well, i didn't check Firefox this time but it wasn't showing when the thread was still active.

      It was kind of odd and, I assume, some sort of bug. At least one person found it and commented but I'm not sure how. It may show intermittently, it may not. It may just hate me. It may be some odd bug on my end. Dunno... The subject's a bit personal but posted in a public forum. I was kind of glad that it ended up that way, even if not intentionally.

      I gotta post this as AC - I was chatty this morning. Gotta wait a bit to as I'm at that stupid 50 post count limit. (It's pretty silly.) At any rate, that's a glitch (I'm assuming) and nothing intentional. I kind of doubt he's got the power to make a post remain hidden to some users.

      Here's a screen shot:
      http://i.imgur.com/flNbr5n.png

      That is me, logged in, and doing a text-search (via CTRL + F) for the comment and it is not shown. That is showing comments at -1. If you open the page by clicking the full story/comments URL, and CTRL + F for my username, for the text, or for the likes then you too many not see it. It might show for you - someone else found it and he was able to respond.

      Anyhow, I think it was around Obama's election when someone piped up that they were going to kill the guy or something along those lines. I don't remember the exact quote and I've no idea if someone got a screen shot. There was a bit of an ado at the time. I was unaware of (or don't remember) the Scientology thing. I'm not sure which is scarier, the Scientology guys or the Secret Service. :/ I seem to recall the person that threatened the president as having said that they were going to kill the negro president or something stupid. It sparked quite a bunch of interest and was deleted but left orphaned comments. I don't think he'd taken office but had won the election.

      I'll leave this open for now so that I can see a reply. I'll try to not close it by accident. (AC replies get no notifications, obviously.)

    13. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Ok, here you go. This is the "screen shot" comment, and the other link you gave also shows up fine. The thing is they were made long after the 250th comment in the thread. If you go back to the original story. Hit the "Load next 500 Comments" Button until all the comments are loaded and visible. The thread contains 949 comments so you will need to hit the button at least twice. Then you will see those comments also.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    14. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      By the way, save your AC comments locally in the same fashion previously explained in order it retrieve it along with any responses it may have.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    15. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That explains it. Thanks. I'm probably a bit too lazy to save all my comments. :( I... err... I make *a lot* of comments. I tend to max out my comments most days 'cause I am that bored. I almost always meander back and have a /. tab open so I find something new to babble about. It's one of the great things about being retired. That and I tend to learn a lot from people here.

      I'd no idea about the Scientologist one. That doesn't totally surprise me. I know that other things that might be copyrighted have stayed up (I've posted some - I have a WSJ subscription) but Scientology people are, shall we say, zealous. I just noticed your UID and I'm not sure if you'd have been a member then or not. Obviously, you could have read or posted AC - I've no way of knowing.

      This is my second account, I used to post about what I was doing for work back in the day but then things got pretty proprietary so I mostly posted as AC. Then I stopped visiting as things got busy. Then I rejoined 'cause I'd lost that email address and I'm not even able to recollect the prior username. Ah well... I can't say that I'd ever needed the load more thing before - I could have sworn it used to load all with a setting in my profile. I'll have to double-check and see if that's been reconfigured on its own or if they've done away with it entirely. I'd not be the least bit surprised to find out they'd done away with it and I'd just not noticed. Great, more comments to read. ;-)

      I should save comments for a while - just to see. I can then go back and check and see if any are edited/deleted. I'd not be the least bit surprised if they did it and I didn't notice. As I said, I make a lot of comments.

    16. Re:Post to undo an accidental moderation by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      I just claim that it's needed.

      I'll agree to disagree... It may be useful in some aspects, but if all this power is needed for filtering out "bad stuff", etc, it doesn't seem worth the effort. This is a text forum, I'm grateful we can make links to make our posts look all artsy and stuff.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  9. Already abused by Technician · · Score: 1

    They are working full time here on my phone lines. One calls regularly and asks if Barbara is home. When answered no, it lets me know it will call back at a better time and hangs up. It is not smart enough to understand she died.

    It is not smart enough to know what that better time is.

    I get other calls trying to interest me in college. I started asking them if they will answer a capita for me. The fun ones try to find a class for me on capita and want to know how soon I would like to take a class.

    --
    The truth shall set you free!
    1. Re: Already abused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Expedia uses those. My old roommate traveled a lot, so she still gets several calls a week. The Expedia bot is t smart enough to understand the statement that she moved. It very annoying since we have an east coast VoIP so they usually call before 8am PST.

    2. Re:Already abused by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      Do you mean a CAPTCHA?

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
    3. Re: Already abused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      We lose a lot of customers because we do that. I can't imagine we sell enough flights to make-up for the angry customers.

    4. Re: Already abused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those Microsoft-related companies seethe worst spammers.

    5. Re:Already abused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd guess auto-correct on a phone.

    6. Re: Already abused by ruir · · Score: 1

      Feed the voip to your own asterisk, blacklist them.

  10. BIG BROTHER IS CHATTING WITH YOU by TiggertheMad · · Score: 1

    In the article about the MS chat bot, MS claims that they don't keep information from prior conversations. Assuming that they are being honest about this, it is a moot point, as data between the users smart phones and the servers is likely un-encrypted or the Authorities have the encryption keys. (Or will soon, there was an article on /. yesterday about that very topic).

    It is interesting to think that MS could be so naive as to think that this feature isn't rife for surveillance abuse.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:BIG BROTHER IS CHATTING WITH YOU by taustin · · Score: 1

      The first abuse will by spammers and con artists. We know they'll be first, because they've been using chatbots for years. All dating sites use them, or have fraudsters using them who do. I've had email chatbots respond to ads on Craig's List, too.

      I expect these new ones will be a decade behind in sophistication, permanently.

    2. Re:BIG BROTHER IS CHATTING WITH YOU by ruir · · Score: 1

      i actually find too strange this thread being immediately next to one about Ashley Madison. Either someone at slashdot has some fine black humor or it is a not-so-subtle sign from the gods.

  11. Eliza by jtara · · Score: 1

    She is known as Xiaoice

    Is that "Eliza" in Chinese?

    1. Re:Eliza by vanDrunen · · Score: 1

      it roughly translates to "Little Bing"

    2. Re:Eliza by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The characters mean "little ice" and were chosen because "ice" is pronounced Bing in Mandarin.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:Eliza by jtara · · Score: 2

      For the n00bs:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

      Hails originally from 1964-1966.

      It was fun for a moment for me when in college in 1972 to re-code it in Snobol...

      Reasonably convincing. No AI. Just some clever, crude parsing and a small bit of contextual memory.

      The conversations from this advanced 50-years-later technology looks about the same...

    4. Re:Eliza by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. Modern chatbots are barely better than Eliza. Just look at the winners of the annual Loebner Prize.

    5. Re:Eliza by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      I once put an Eliza into an IRC channel. As soon as one mentioned its name, the bit was called Pirx, he drew that person into a talk. Obviously he created an "Eliza Instance" for every conversation. So he could answer to all partners individually.

      Once we had like 20 people in the chat and half of them where talking to Pirx and commenting to each other about his answers. After a few minutes they accused me I would be typing for him ... was quite funny.

      It was just a simple Eliza, no real "enhancements".

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  12. Can you elaborate on how chatbots make you feel? by smoothnorman · · Score: 2
    And what makes you believe that the coming chatbot revolution is a source of concern?

    Can you explain what makes you say that?

    Perhaps we can start again, why is it that you think that concern is something that you feel about chatbots?

  13. Why would I waste my precious time... by moosehooey · · Score: 1

    It's boring enough chatting with real people. A bot would be entertaining to screw with for 10 minutes and then I'd leave and never talk to it again.

    1. Re:Why would I waste my precious time... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      It's to take over simple questions not to provide conversation. Given how scripted half of tech support is in India they could easily be Chatbots and most people wouldn't know any different.

    2. Re:Why would I waste my precious time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because there are billions of people in the world with varying levels of neuroses. Who knows truly why they would. But the big companies have a vested interest in jacking into these neuroses and figuring out how to make money from them.

  14. Sounds pretty accurate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Google answers tough questions from a database populated with movie dialog.

    So just like the rest of us?

  15. The Entrapment Bot Cometh by WheezyJoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Behold the "Entrapment Bot." Indistinguishably human-appearing bots everywhere inviting you to chat, e-mail, speak, whatever, and applying continuously evolving AI to lure you into doing something sufficient to justify and automatically generate search and arrest warrants.

    More fun, the back-end server can invite law enforcement and IT personnel to place bets how many chats it will take to get you to incriminate yourself. Sound stupid? Some contractor's gonna make millions selling this to surveillance-crazed governments world-wide before writing one line of code.

    You saw it here first, folks. Someday, the only safe way to talk shit with somebody is in person, down in a bug-proof hole. And the Entrapment Replicants will number those days, too.

    --
    Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
    1. Re:The Entrapment Bot Cometh by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Very true. Did a person add the "chat bot" as a friend? Or try and just IM it over weeks, months... What phrases, terms, words got used.
      Fill a database count with too many terms and a real human reads the logs...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:The Entrapment Bot Cometh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd much rather use a program I could download and run on my own computer than do an online chat. I can't imagine the processing requirements would be prohibitive given today's computers.
      That's one thing I find troubling these days - too much end user data being handled on corporate servers where it can be misused.

    3. Re:The Entrapment Bot Cometh by radarskiy · · Score: 0

      -1, insane

      You people have some nutty ideas about what you think is entrapment. What you describe is actually called "attempting to commit a crime".

    4. Re:The Entrapment Bot Cometh by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Entrapment does not mean the subject did not commit a crime. It just means the crime cannot be prosecuted if a government agent induced the crime, and if the crime would not have been committed without that agent's involvement. It's standard training for any undercover officer to know exactly what they must not ask. A chatbot that befriends people, steers the conversation towards crime and gets them to admit their past illegal activities would not comprise entrapment. A chatbot that befriends people, convinces them that drugs are cool and claims to know a trustworthy guy they can buy pot from, however, may well be considered entrapment. This is all well-established law now, as it comes up frequently whenever undercover officers are used.

    5. Re:The Entrapment Bot Cometh by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Hello $user. I am really $swear $inebriationlevel! I have some $illicitdrugs and bought too much. I need to pay my $bill, I'm getting rid of some $illicitdrugs for $lowprice and can deliver, if you're interested.

      Hello Joe. I am really damned tripped right not. I have some acid and bought too much. I need to pay my car payment, I'm getting rid of some acid for $50 for a ten strip and can deliver, if you're interested.

      I suppose it could scrape your post history, emails, former chats, criminal record, and then do the same for your friends and find out what you find tempting and run with that and tailor it for your needs a bit better. One company, be it Google, Apple, Microsoft, WhatsApp, or the likes - may well have information not just about you but about what your stupid contacts admit to online and be able to craft some very specific and insightful messages - in an entirely automated fashion.

      Entrapment restrictions may still apply. I am not sure that those regulations are as strong as they once were, however. In the interest of stopping drug use and prosecuting pedophilia we appear to have been willing to weaken those protections. To be fair, that we don't likely include either you or I but, given our lack of action, they've concluded that we consent to such. After all, are you going to speak out on the rights of the pedophile? That is, of course, also a generic you but it may be you in particular.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    6. Re:The Entrapment Bot Cometh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      radarskiy is pointing out that the concept that a chatbot will lure you into committing a crime requires you to be dumb enough, or willing enough, to actually commit the crime. The short answer: don't be stupid, and don't be a criminal, and there's absolutely no reason to worry about this. It's Chicken Little stuff. For the ones who are caught in this way... one might convincingly argue that it was a good thing that they were caught.

  16. Dr. Sbatso by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By Creative Labs. Please enter your name now.

  17. This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by Hasaf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know this sounds bad; but I am a middle aged man, I am not going to make new friends. I am not allowed to have a dog. I wanted something that I could come home and chat with. Yes, something that would remember to wake me up and discuss movies, books, and games with me.

    I realize it will never be a person; I am well aware of chat-bot limitations. However, with more and more single households, I can see a demand for something like this. To deny the market is to ignore a market.

    1. Re: This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

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

    2. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      I know this sounds bad; but I am a middle aged man, I am not going to make new friends. I am not allowed to have a dog. I wanted something that I could come home and chat with. Yes, something that would remember to wake me up and discuss movies, books, and games with me.

      As long as it has a working class Scottish accent and curses a lot, I'll interact with a chatbot all day long.

      "How are you today, AngusBot?"

      "ALL TURN YER FOOKIN BOABY INSIDE OOT YA MANKY COONT"

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by yes-but-no · · Score: 1

      Do you really think, you will feel good knowing it's a bot that you are talking to? If you are a kid or someone who's never been told that the other end is not a human, might enjoy the talks; but knowing very well that the other end is just arranging the words using some algorithm, what joy you think it will give you? I understand each one is different but it kind of puzzles me.

      If someone is reaching out to the bot to handle loneliness; how will this eliminate it? Most us humans interact not really because of the content of the words -- it's because there is something common we share -- a shared destiny [the reason we are here..a journey.. call it soul/higher power/purpose etc].

      BTW there are too many negatives in your statement; I don't know how you can be so sure of your future.. no one knows what's around the corner.. life changes in an instant..that's the mystery of Life

    4. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by spikesahead · · Score: 1

      There is absolutely nothing about being a middle aged man that would intrinsically prevent you from doing either one of those things.

      --
      bend like the reed
    5. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      Do you really think, you will feel good knowing it's a bot that you are talking to? If you are a kid or someone who's never been told that the other end is not a human, might enjoy the talks; but knowing very well that the other end is just arranging the words using some algorithm, what joy you think it will give you? I understand each one is different but it kind of puzzles me.

      It puzzles me personally, too. But it's a well-known phenomenon, going back to the days of ELIZA decades ago. Even when told that there's no "person" on the other side of an electronic chat, people still often engage emotionally.

      If someone is reaching out to the bot to handle loneliness; how will this eliminate it? Most us humans interact not really because of the content of the words -- it's because there is something common we share -- a shared destiny [the reason we are here..a journey.. call it soul/higher power/purpose etc].

      People "talk" to deities too -- they rarely even "talk back" to most people, but people often find solace in doing so. Early ELIZA users often reported "sensing an intelligence" even after explicitly being told that there was none.

      People project all sorts of things onto emotional interactions. If they need to vent or have some sort of interaction, what they say when they vent is often more important emotionally than what the response is. Hence therapy sessions (which can frequently happen) where a patient just goes in and rants for an hour, then pays a couple hundred dollars for the therapist to say, "Okay, time's up, see you next week."

      Some people need to FEEL like someone is listening and caring, even if no one is. God, psychiatrists, etc. can fill that role. Why not chatbots?

      BTW there are too many negatives in your statement; I don't know how you can be so sure of your future.. no one knows what's around the corner.. life changes in an instant..that's the mystery of Life

      That I'll agree with. GP is way too negative. Thinking negative is more likely to produce negative results. I don't know the future either, but having a view like "I'm never gonna make friends and I'm never gonna have a meaningful emotional relationship again" is rarely helpful in making friends and having meaningful relationships.

    6. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Sharp has been offering this for a few years in Japan. They make a robot vacuum cleaner called CoCoRobo that you can talk to and have a simple conversation with when you get home. It even sends you photos of stuff it finds under the sofa and encounters with pets as it cleans up.

      Before that Sony had a robot dog, and robot companions are seen as being key to caring for the elderly in the future.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      knowing very well that the other end is just arranging the words using some algorithm, what joy you think it will give you?

      Jeeze, you're right. Why even socialize at all?

      *jumps from a bridge*

    8. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pope, you have a strange, perhaps unhealthy, obsession with said working-class Scottish accent. ;-)

      Meh, you know who this is so I'll save a post and send this as an AC.

    9. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by KGIII · · Score: 1

      When I'm home, I pay to visit a headshrinker or, lately, a therapist. Why? They're usually objective, honest, and able to give me feedback. I also want to ensure that I'm sane - they tell me that I am. I've been going to see a headshrinker for years and years - since I was in my 20s, though I had to see one as a kid for a spell. Depending on my schedule and my desire, I may see one every week. I can tell them the complete and total truth. I can tell them that about my thoughts and feelings and they can give me feedback and help me ensure that I'm remaining objective, logically consistent, and let me know of choices that I may not have seen on my own.

      As an aside, I also like group therapy sessions but I don't attend them as a general rule. I have, in the past, done so but I felt that I was taking time and a seat away from someone who might be better served by it. Sitting in front of a group of people who are tearing into your logic and reasoning is a good thing. It helps you be more consistent and think more clearly. It enables you to be more honest with yourself and others. I'd like something a bit more tailored to my needs but sites, such as this, come fairly close. I often put more about me and my thinking online than others - it allows folks to rip into it and find fault. I'm not perfect and this lets me see flaws that I'd otherwise miss. It has been a great help. I'm able to find and read posts from many years back and the change in my ability to articulate and opine with logical consistencies and reasoning has been quite startling.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    10. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by Visarga · · Score: 1

      > knowing very well that the other end is just arranging the words using some algorithm

      It's a recurrent neural network with an understanding of the world, that has its own will based on reinforcement learning. I am very curious to hear what they have to say. After ingesting millions of web pages and books it might be quite insightful.

    11. Re:This is what I wanted the Amazon Echo to do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [[yes-but-no].. no idea why it posts me as AC]]
      All said, it's just framing a sentence using words. It may refer to millions/billions of human dialogues (say from movies, books, chat-logs, forums, etc). Still it has no mystery in it...no "soul" to speak of.

      Not going into spiritual side of things, most humans thoughts may also be just a permutation of known inputs (words we heard, sentences we were exposed to). But we like to believe that there is something beyond that can drive our thoughts. Why does an idea/intuition/guess suddenly pops in our head..we may not be able to trace its origin to the root. There lies the mystery. Also call it Love or something beyond words..exists when a human talks to another human; that's why we all enjoy talks with a small child (with limited vocabulary) or even with a pet dog.

      The OP is a slashdot user..so I assume he has a scientific mind; how knowing these all well, he expects a bot will provide any meaningful companionship.
      Of course AI/RNN can accurately provide useful facts/data ..but it's not self-aware or it doesn't have that human like element which can provide the solution to loneliness.

  18. Sounds a lot like "push" revolution from the 90's by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    In other words, BS.

  19. Re:Sounds a lot like "push" revolution from the 90 by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Most technological "revolutions" these days are.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  20. Obligatory xkcd by burtosis · · Score: 2

    xkcd suspicion

  21. Automated trolling bots is more like it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much would you like to bet it will be applied to nefarious ends like what I mention in my subject above?

  22. +1 Insightful by mccrew · · Score: 1

    Wish I had mod points for you today.

    --
    Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
  23. Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "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."

    Phrased like a true Aspy. Fuck you, Silicon Valley.

  24. They should just buy out Ashley Madison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then they'll have all the chatbots they need.

    1. Re:They should just buy out Ashley Madison by Visarga · · Score: 1

      Funny, but I for one am curious to chat with a bot that is at human level. I hope they will crack this soon, considering the current resources and algorithms.

      They already seem to be able to converse on a domain specific task, answer trivia questions and make random conversation. Some chat bots are even able to do reasoning and solve simple problems. It's only a matter of time until they become genuinely interesting.

  25. Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/12/28/1434202/the-ai-anxiety