Chatbots. News Digest 04/16

Booking.com launches a chatbot to connect hotels and travelers

The largest travel company in the world, announces a chat communication service that allows its millions of users to interact more easily with the hotels before and after their stays.

Users can use the chat service in two ways. First, they can start by asking a question of their host from within their Booking.com account on any device. That includes messaging directly from the desktop, mobile web, or within Booking.com apps on iOS or Android. Users can initiate any kind of conversation they’d like with the accommodation.

Importance of chatbot's personality. Karolina Kuligowska

Dr. Karolina Kuligowska is working on commercial implementations of chatbots, evaluating their performance. I’ve asked Karolina to share her experience with my blog's readers.

Is it possible to measure the user satisfaction when dealing with chat bot?

Karolina Kuligowska: "In my opinion it is of course possible to measure the user satisfaction when dealing with chatbots. The only problem lies in definition. Until today scientists cannot agree on the precise meaning of the term satisfaction, therefore many measures depend on qualitative results. As they are not quantitative ones, it is difficult to make statistical analysis or comparisons between them. According to my research, it is possible to measure performance, usability and overall quality evaluation of every chat bot. User satisfaction, or user experience, can constitute a part of that evaluation - either in a form of a structured yes/no questionnaire or in a form of unstructured open-ended questions."

Chatbot collects questions for Vladimir Putin

Social network "Vkontakte", which this year will be to broadcast a straight line with Vladimir Putin, will give users the opportunity to ask questions of the President. To specify the data and formulate the question correctly and within the allowable volume helps the chat-bot.

The function "Ask a question" and the chat bot are available in the mobile and full versions of the website (including in the new design) and all the official clients.

Chatbots. News Digest 03/16

Tara the chatbot hires freelancers so you don’t have to

Tara is a Web-based chatbot designed to help small businesses get jobs done that require freelance contractors; maybe building an app or a website, designing a new logo, or even writing blog posts and marketing copy.
Source: thenextweb.com

"Don't write your own AI engine". Will Rayer (Uberbot's Developer)

Uberbot, a Chatterbot created by Will Rayer, placed 3rd in the 2014 Loebner Contest at Bletchley Park. I'd like to thank Will for this interview.

When have you realized to create your first chatbot? How did it happen?

Will Rayer: "I have been interested in AI for a long time but I always thought it was very complicated to create an AI. All I could see was complex projects like CYC which have been under development for 20+ years. Then in 2012 several things happened...

"Never give up". Steve Worswick (Mitsuku's Developer)

Mitsuku, a Chatterbot created by Steve Worswick, won the 2013 Loebner Prize bronze award as the most human-like chatbot.

What about Steve Worswick's first chatbot? I've asked Steve to share his experience with me and people who are trying to start making chatbots.

Steve Worswick: "Back in the early 2000s, I used to create dance/techno music as a hobby and had a little success with a couple of nationwide releases. One of my fellow producers had a chatbot on his website which was only a simple chatbot that could reply to common phrases but I was hooked on it and wanted one for my own site.

1KB Simple English Chatbot

Is it possible to chat with someone who only has 1KB of intelligence? Try it!
This bot is completely defined via 1KB AIML-file.

Chatbots. News Digest 02/16

Look at applications where chatbots are useful.

1. The robot lawyer

Joshua Browder, a Stanford University freshman, created a robot to appeal parking tickets in the UK, which has saved drivers $3 million dollars and he plans bring the bot to New York this spring. The robot lawyer can generate documents and answer legal questions, but won’t charge you hundreds of dollars in fees.

Chatbot. Mind map

You know, the are many different chatbots. Just for definition of this phenomenon's context I'd like to present to you the following mind map.

I hope, it will help us to classify existing chatbots and to choose relevant themes for this blog.

Why are you here?

There are several reasons for me to start this blog: I like to write short texts, I like to create chatbots and share my creations and I'd like to improve my pure poor English (my native language is Russian).

Why are you here? Do you also believe chatbots have great potential? Let's observe how they come into our lives through products and services.

WBR,
Ivan Golubev.