chatbots
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'Counter-Strike' is facing a chat bot invasion
The Counter-Strike community has faced numerous challenges in the years since launch, ranging from cheating to gambling, but there's one more to add to the pile: a flood of chat bots. At least one intruder is taking advantage of a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive exploit to flood lobbies (even private ones) with text from chat bots that can't be kicked. From early indications, the attacker is trying to draw attention to security issues -- Valve supposedly doesn't care about cheaters and needs to be taught a lesson, if you believe the harasser.
Google Assistant hints at support for typing questions
Google Assistant is clever -- just ask Pixel or Home owners. Unless you're using Allo, though, you have little choice but to ask the AI questions through voice commands. Google might give you more ways to interact in the near future, however. An exploration of the Android search app's beta code has uncovered hints (namely, a keyboard icon and a text box) that you'll soon have the option of typing your Assistant searches. This is important if you'd rather not reveal your queries to everyone within earshot, but it should also be key to integrating chat bots.
Facebook Messenger test hints at a bigger role for AI
Facebook wants its M chat assistant to be useful for much more than shopping and travel recommendations. It's testing an M suggestions feature that has the artificial intelligence offer actions depending on the circumstances in your chat. Some will be familiar: if a friend asks where you are, it'll give you a Google Hangouts-style opportunity to share your location. Others are more creative, such as suggesting stickers in response to common phrases like "thanks."
Microsoft will give Skype chatbots a voice next year
Not content with just stuffing Cortana into your home appliances, Microsoft now wants you to have real conversations with needy Skype bots. In a bid to make those awkward chatbot encounters feel more natural, next year will see the company granting third parties access to its Skype calling API. With this, Microsoft partners like StubHub and Expedia will be able to give their bots a voice, offering users an alternative to text chat.
Learn a new language with Duolingo's chatbots
Duolingo has been offering language learning tools for a while now, but today the company debuted a new tool inside its iPhone app that could make the task a bit easier. Thanks to AI-powered chatbots, the language-learning app offers a way to have conversations while you're trying to learn French, German and Spanish. That's a short list of languages for now, but Duolingo says more options are on the way.
Facebook Messenger chatbots now support payments
The latest version of Facebook Messenger adds a new feature to the 30,000 or so chatbots that currently inhabit its platform. Starting today with version 1.2, those Messenger bots can now accept payments directly in the chat without sending users to an external website.
Order pizza right from your Twitch stream with Hungrybot
When you're chilling on the couch watching your favorite esports stream on Twitch and hunger hits, pizza is just a few keystrokes away.
Skype rolls out its suite of third-party app chatbots
Skype is the latest service to be joining in on the bot craze. After deploying a preview of Skype Bots back in April, the company is pushing a new series of chatbots out into the Skype Bot directory across Windows, Android, iOS, Mac and Web apps.
This contest proved how far behind the times chatbots really are
The chatbots you're hitting up on Facebook or Kik may seem as though they can really understand you, but in all actuality they're pretty stupid, at least when it comes to common sense. That's why a new Turing Test in the form of the Winograd Schema Challenge seeks to prove how lacking the bots really are in the grand scheme of things.
Pizza Hut and Whole Foods debut social media chatbots
If you can't be bothered chatting with Facebook's news and weather bots, maybe a pizza bot can change your mind. Pizza Hut is launching a Facebook and a Twitter chatbot this fall that can take your order and show you current deals. The Facebook bot even comes with something extra: it can connect your FB with your Pizza Hut account, so it can list your past orders. You know, in case somebody asks you to prove that you've never had Hawaiian before. But what if you eat healthy and don't like pizza? Well then, you'll probably enjoy chatting with Whole Foods' Facebook bot instead.
AI lawyer shoots down 160,000 parking tickets
Who said that chat bots were gimmicks? Certainly not DoNotPay's Joshua Browder. He recently noted to VentureBeat that his service's AI-driven virtual lawyer has successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York City in nearly 2 years of service, saving drivers millions in the process. It's not the most complicated bot, as it's really just asking simple questions about the circumstances of the ticket and walking you through the appeal. However, it's both effective (it successfully challenged 64 percent of tickets) and, importantly, free -- you don't have to pay a real lawyer to dish out advice.
Microsoft's new acquisition can enhance Cortana's chat bots
Looks like Microsoft has been on a shopping spree. Hot on the heels of its massive LinkedIn purchase, the company announced that it's acquired three-year-old messaging-app maker Wand Labs. In a statement, Microsoft said that the acquisition would "accelerate [its] vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform." Unveiled at the company's Build 2016 conference in March, Conversation embeds AI bots into Cortana to let users access third-party services within a chat.
Get your next movie recommendation from a Facebook bot
Facebook is still working on rolling out its bot platform, with the apps that will eventually comprise it still in its early stages. But there's one that you can try out right now, complete with a ridiculous name based on one of the memes du jour out there on the internet. It's called And Chill, and it's a movie recommendation engine.
Foursquare's new bot texts food suggestions before you're hungry
Foursquare is more than a friendly food finder and gentrification-tracking app -- the company is now in the bot business with its latest tool, Marsbot. The bot analyzes users' locations and past preferences to make proactive recommendations via text on where to eat or grab a drink next. Marsbot isn't a chatbot, meaning users won't ask it for suggestions; instead (and ideally), Marsbot will predict when you're ready to try something new and nudge you toward places you should enjoy.
Google's neural network is now writing sappy poetry
After binge reading romance novels for the past few months, Google's neural network is suddenly turning into the kid from English Lit 101 class. The reading assignment was part of Google's plan to help the app sound more conversational, but the follow-up assignment to take what it learned and write some poetry turned out a little more sophomoric.
Dear Veronica: The bots are taking over!
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-306001{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-306001, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-306001{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-306001").style.display="none";}catch(e){} It seems like everyone is talking about bots these days: from major announcements by Facebook, to the quick demise of Tay from Microsoft, to a myriad tiny chatbots flooding your Twitter timeline. But what are they actually good for? Great question! To help figure that out, I'm welcoming back onto the show Ryan Block, co-founder of Begin (and former editor of this very website!). And OK, you can talk to Belbot here. Godspeed.
Facebook is poised to take the chatbot world by storm
Even though chatbots have been around for quite some time -- remember the SmarterChild bot on AIM? -- they've only recently become the darlings of the tech world. Just two weeks ago, Microsoft announced its Conversations as a Platform initiative, wherein it plans to build bots into Skype to help you do things like book hotels or order a pizza from Domino's. This week, Facebook unveiled its own bot platform for Messenger, which aims to do the same things. At first glance, the two seem similar, but there is one big difference. While the demos we saw at Build are still being built, many of the ones shown at F8 are already live.
Here are all the Facebook Messenger bots we know about so far
While Facebook just announced its bots for Messenger platform today, it already has a few dozen developers lined up to take the plunge. If you downloaded the latest Messenger update today, then you're ready to get started with the CNN bot, a weather bot called Poncho, a Wall Street Journal bot, a bot for 1-800-Flowers and a few more. Here we've compiled a starter list of bots that are already available, plus ones that are slated to arrive in the next few months. You can also peruse the Messenger bot store on Botlist for more. (Props to Martin Hoffman for this public Google Doc of Known Bots).
Facebook's Messenger bots are a compelling alternative to apps
After several months of speculation, Facebook finally announced today that it would be officially integrating chatbots into Messenger. It's already started doing so with a few partners like Uber, Lyft and KLM, but today's announcement means that a lot more businesses are joining the party. And it's not just for customer support or tracking online orders -- though it can certainly be used for that too. These chatbots offer services that range from delivering top news stories to the local weather. In fact, two of its launch partners are a CNN and Poncho, a weather bot that masquerades as a friendly cat.
Chatbots arrive on Facebook Messenger
As we suspected, Facebook is indeed adding chatbot support to Messenger, and it's officially called "Bots for Messenger." It's not a surprise at this point, given that the latest Messenger update shows a "Bots and Businesses" section and that there have been rumors floating around about it for a week now. Still, Zuckerberg & Co. finally made it official. Facebook's CEO gave a demonstration onstage about how he ordered flowers from 1-800-Flowers just by sending a few messages to the company's chatbot. There was also a demo of a CNN bot that offered breaking news after sending a request.
