When I talked about artificial intelligence, talking about AlphaGo, talking about sex robots, and thinking about the days when robots robbed your rice bowl, Americans have really thought about how to integrate it into our lives. That is chat. robot. Facebook, Google and Microsoft are developing new chat bots, such as Xiao Bing, developed by Microsoft. The chat apps Kik and Telegram, as well as a number of emerging startups, are also trying to develop 'killer' chatbot technology. It seems that Facebook's ambitions are a bit more. Zuckerberg tried to get the chat bot to replace some of your phone apps and to some extent replace the Apple App Store. What is he going to do?
![Facebook希望聊天机器人取代苹果App Store]( "Facebook希望聊天机器人取代苹果App Store")
Mark Zuckerberg believes that too many applications are putting a burden on you. Last week, he announced his own solution: chat bots. In the next few years, such chat bots may help Facebook and other Internet companies to improve their performance and change the way you use your smartphone. But first, these chat bots need to be smarter.
Chatbot is a simplified software that understands the meaning of your input, answers questions, or performs certain tasks. Apple Siri is a chat bot, as is Amazon Alexa. However, Zuckerberg's attention to chat bots combines popular messaging software and emerging artificial intelligence technologies. If everything goes as planned, the chat bot will know what you like, remember what you are saying, and make your life easier.
The first such chat bot was Eliza, which was developed in the 1960s. When you type in a question at the MIT computer terminal, she can answer. However, Eliza's answer is very vague, as if a psychotherapist is talking to you.
The chat bots that Facebook expects are more modern. The goal of such a chat bot is to replace mobile apps and help partners connect to 1.9 billion Messenger and WhatsApp users, especially the “Millennium Generation” who like to chat. Facebook's chat bots have something special: they run in the backstage of corporate Messenger. This means that users do not need to download any applications, it is very convenient to use, and Facebook's service is expected to replace the Apple App Store to a certain extent.
Zuckerberg said at the F8 conference last week: 'No users want to install a new application for all businesses or services that need to interact. We believe that the way to interact with the company should be similar to the interaction with friends.'
Currently, Silicon Valley is expecting a revolution in chat bots. Alphabet's Google and Microsoft are developing new chat bots, and the chat apps Kik and Telegram are doing the same. A number of emerging startups are also trying to develop 'killer' chat robot technology.
John Lilly, a well-known venture capitalist Greylock Management partner, believes that the way users expect interaction should go further than the current approach to smartphones.
Facebook is following the pace of Tencent WeChat, which is the most popular messaging app in China. With this app, users can shop or pay their bills. Facebook Messenger is currently online with more than 25 robots, offering services similar to those on websites and apps, including weather forecasts, news bulletins and flower delivery. However, the user's actions are not just clicks or slides, but rather the need to send a message.
Facebook has invested billions of dollars in the news business, and such new services may create another source of revenue for Facebook. Facebook has just begun testing sponsored messaging features, and chat bots may become an important part of it.
Facebook pointed out that using chat bots to earn revenue is not the current focus. But industry observers believe that the potential in this area is huge. According to Evercore Group, half of the customer service market through messaging services will generate $4 billion in revenue.
Although technology giants have developed chat bots, it is unclear whether American users will accept such concepts. Chatbots invite users to interact with them as if they were real people. But in fact, these software have their own limitations.
Last month, Microsoft released the chat robot Tay, hoping to imitate the personality of a 19-year-old girl. Tay uses artificial intelligence technology to interact with and learn from users on the Twitter platform. However, within a few hours of the launch, Tay's learning mechanism was seriously problematic and began to issue racist remarks in support of Hitler. Subsequently, Microsoft urgently dropped off Tay from Twitter.
Microsoft said that Tay had problems because many users worked together to 'play' Tay's artificial intelligence algorithms. In China, Microsoft's other chat robot, Xiao Bing, has been online for two years and has interacted with 40 million WeChat users.
XOXCO, a startup from Austin, Texas, has developed Howdy, a chat bot that can do a variety of administrative tasks. Ben Brown, the company's CEO, said: 'When you train a machine learning system, the system is more like a black box. You don't know what will happen in the end. I don't believe that big brands, even small ones, Willing to take such risks.'
The initial launch of Facebook's chat bots failed to meet expectations, which has disappointed users. When asked the question 'What happened?', CNN's chat bot responded with a confused expression and let the user 'try again.' BuzzFeed contributor Katie Notopoulos tried to use Jello Labs' Spring chat bot to buy shoes, but she encountered endless recommendations.
Industry experts believe that if you want to achieve your goals, Facebook's chat bots need to use people's everyday language. Bruce Wilcox, the developer of the award-winning chat robot Rose, said: 'They can't accept natural language, but just accept menu items.'
Currently, 900 million users of Messenger have begun experimenting with chat bots. Regarding the user's expectations of the chat bot, Facebook will get a lot of new data, and ultimately, this will make the chat bot more powerful.
Vercox said: 'The chat bot will largely replace the application. It is cumbersome to install and use different applications.' After winning his chat bot, he resigned from Amazon's job and created the chat bot startup Kore.