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Feed the Taylor Swift hype machine for a better chance at tickets
Buying tickets to a play or concert online is an absolutely terrible experience these days. Between fighting bots and ridiculous handling fees, fans get the short end of the stick when they can't make it to the venue to buy direct. Taylor Swift is partnering with Ticketmaster and its Verified Fan program to sidestep some of that frustration with Taylor Swift Tix.
'Hamilton' battles ticket bots with a hand from Ticketmaster
The people behind Hamilton aren't just counting on laws to combat ticket bots -- they're enlisting the help of the ticket providers as well. Ticketmaster has revealed that it will use its recent Verified Fan feature to give you a better chance of seeing Hamilton, the Schuyler sisters and Burr strut on a Broadway stage between March and August 2018. As with other Verified Fan plays, like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the process has fans registering on a website to signal their interest -- Ticketmaster then combs over registrations based on data and sends codes via text message to those who pass scrutiny.
Facebook Messenger update makes business bots easier to deal with
After launching Messenger 2.0 in April, Facebook has just dropped the platform's 2.1 update. Once again, most of these changes are here to help businesses, with Facebook focusing on improving how its Messenger bots work in the latest update. Messenger now has built in natural language processing (NLP), which means the platform can detect seven key traits of any message before passing it onto a businesses' bots. The addition of NLP helps Messenger flag crucial information from an inquiry, like date and time, location, phone number, amount of money and email addresses. This makes life easier for consumers too, meaning that they're more likely to get the right help quickly, rather than spending a frustrating conversation talking to a bot that fails to register the crucial info.
Propaganda bots dominate social networks in some countries
It won't shock you to hear that governments and shady political groups will use social network bots in a bit to control the flow of information. But just how prevalent are they? Depending on where you live, they might just dictate the social media landscape. Oxford University researchers have published a study showing that "computational propaganda" (bots and other coordinated campaigns) is practically par for the course in some countries. In Russia, for instance, 45 percent of Twitter activity stems from "highly automated" accounts. And Ukraine is a "frontline" for just about everyone -- Russia, Ukrainian nationalists and civil society groups are all using digital propaganda systems in a bid to sway public opinion.
Microsoft's "Zo" chatbot picked up some offensive habits
It seems that creating well-behaved chatbots isn't easy. Over a year after Microsoft's "Tay" bot went full-on racist on Twitter, its successor "Zo" is suffering a similar affliction.
A Paris school is using AI to monitor distracted students
For those of us who zone out during university lectures, the temptation multiplies when you taking classes from home. Next fall, a business school in France will try to stop online students from getting distracted with an AI app called Nestor. To judge your level of attention, it can track your face and eyes and even detect when you pull out a phone. If you start to slack off, it can warn you via pop-up messages or emails, and tell you roughly when you may drift away again.
Pay for your next pizza without ever leaving Telegram
The latest update to messaging app Telegram has added a couple of welcome features to the platform that presents itself as a secure alternative to WhatsApp. The first enables users to record minute-long videos to send to one another instead of having to type out their feelings using boring old words. Telegram is boasting that sending these clips will be much faster than other services, since the video is compressed and transmitted while you record.
Facebook's latest AI add-on will teach chatbots to sound less robotic
If you've been paying any attention to what Facebook is up to lately, you'll know that artificial intelligence and conversational chat bots are two of the most important initiatives for the company. Today, the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research group (FAIR) is announcing a new initiative that bridges the two. A new online "lab" will let anyone test and use publicly-available datasets to test their own AI dialog systems. The new system, called ParlAI, is FAIR's attempt to make smarter AI bots that aren't as single-minded as many of the ones available now.
Anti-net neutrality bots are swarming the FCC's comments
It's not just proponents of net neutrality that are flocking to the FCC's website -- opponents are there as well... in a manner of speaking. Reports from ZDNet and elsewhere have revealed that one or more bots are posting thousands of identical comments (at least 128,000) in favor of the FCC's proposal to gut net neutrality rules. The automated code cycles alphabetically through a list of real names and addresses, pretending to support the FCC on their behalf. The agency declined to comment on the bot attack citing a policy where it doesn't discuss specific filings.
Slack predictably rejects a bot made for flirting at work
Dating app Feeld released a Slack plug-in enabling coworkers to express mutual affection for each other, and a few days later, Slack has revealed it doesn't make the cut. Feeld founder Dimo Trifonov told The Atlantic he's been informed the app will not be listed in Slack's directory because of its developer policy, which says "We will remove Apps that we consider to be inappropriate for use in the workplace or that negatively impact the user experience on Slack. We reserve the right to remove or refuse any app that contains content that we believe violates the letter or spirit of these guidelines."
UK to make online ticket-buying bots illegal
A new amendment slipped into the Digital Economy Bill, which is now pretty close to becoming UK law, would make the use of online tout bots that hoover up tickets to popular music, sport and other events a criminal offense punishable by unlimited fines (but not imprisonment). Websites typically limit the number of tickets an individual can buy for obvious reasons, but computerized tools that circumvent these caps allow scalpers to buy more than their fair share, if there is such a thing in this context.
Facebook Messenger bots are going to get a lot more verbose
Facebook's next updates for Messenger have a big focus on bots. Yep, Zuck is still trying to make "fetch" happen with those. Anyhow, the newest bits for the platform are mostly about letting others know that a bit of text originated from. That means from a shared bit of bot text will allow you to start a conversation with said bot from your existing conversation window. Even if you're using Messenger from desktop. In addition to a bunch of other developer-centric notes is word that the bot text limit has been doubled. So yeah, jumping from 320 characters to 640 means that the bots are about to get a lot more chatty.
'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.
Twitter botnet quotes 'Star Wars' from the middle of the sea
Along with trolls and bullies, one of Twitter's biggest problems is bots -- automated accounts that puff up follower numbers, troll users or turn fake news into trending topics. Researchers investigating botnets found maybe the strangest one ever: 350,000 that tweet only random Star Wars quotes from Windows Phone devices. While that's actually kind of amusing, the researchers say that it reveals "profound limitations of existing bot detection methods" and shows the potential risks that hidden networks pose to the Twitter ecosystem.
President Obama signs nationwide ticket-bot ban into law
New York already passed legislation banning the use of ticket buying bots, but President Obama has just made the ban a nationwide law. Today, the president signed the "Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016" which makes it illegal to use software to purchase tickets to popular events. Of course, the end goal of doing so is to resell them at a higher price. As you might expect, the law aims to give the general public a fair shot at concerts, sporting events and more that sell out quickly.
Twitter bots were rampant during the US election
If you believe one study, it's not just fake news that polluted the internet during the US election... it's bogus accounts, too. Researchers at the international Project on Computational Propaganda report that the use of politically minded Twitter bots reached an "all-time high" during the 2016 presidential campaign. Out of 18.9 million studied tweets using political hashtags, 17.9 percent of them came from "highly automated" accounts that post 50 or more tweets per day. That ratio only grew higher during the debates, peaking at over 27 percent during the final Clinton/Trump showdown -- and it conveniently tanked after the election was over.
'White' Twitter bots can help curb racism
Twitter is trying to curb the virulent racism on its platform by banning bigots and expanding reporting features, but it's like whack-a-mole -- two pop up for every one banned. However, a new research paper shows that calling out users who post racist and sexist slurs can heavily curb trolling. There's a catch, however: it's much more effective if the "white knight" is, well, white
Yahoo brings all its bots together in one app
Yahoo has quietly introduced a new app called Yahoo Bots, as recently spotted by VentureBeat. The application, available for iOS and Android, acts as a hub to connect you with all of the company's virtual assistants. You'll find bots that provide information from Yahoo News, Yahoo Weather and Yahoo Finance, and more could be added in the future. Meanwhile, Blitz helps Fantasy Football players research their team and manage it, as well as get real-time stats, player news and personalized roster recommendations. If you want to check it out, Yahoo Bots is a free download from the App Store or Google Play.
IBM's Watson is lending its smarts to Slack and its chat bot
Slack is going to tap into IBM pet Watson and its cognitive computing skills, covering both bots and other conversation inferences. Slack's own Slackbot will be the first to get the intelligence makeover, with IBM and Slack looking to share what they learn from the experience with other developers. The companies believe integrating Watson will improve accuracy and efficiency of troubleshooting with the bot. IBM is also working on a Watson-powered Slack chatbot specifically for IT and network issues.
Recommended Reading: President Obama on science and innovation
Barack Obama: Now Is the Greatest Time to Be Alive President Barack Obama, Wired The White House Frontiers Conference took place this week to "explore the future of innovation here and around the world." President Obama is also guest editor for the November issue of Wired where he discusses science and other advancements in both essay and interview form. Above is the president's writing on technology and more. There's also a joint interview with MIT's Joi Ito where the two discuss AI, self-driving cars and and other futuristic topics with Wired's Scott Dadich.
