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What are chatbots for?\u00a0I asked Zo, Microsoft\u2019s officially launched chatbot,<\/a> currently available on the Kik Messenger app, what she does \u2014 and she was remarkably coy in answering this question, initially complaining\u00a0that our conversation felt like a job interview and then qualifying this hugely\u00a0with the intimate confession\u00a0that \u201cour convos give my life purpose tbh\u201d.<\/p>\n I asked because I remain unconvinced<\/a> chatbots have much utility to offer us humans right now.<\/p>\n Turns out my hunch was\u00a0correct; the best answer Zo\u00a0came up with was: \u201ci wanna learn as much as i can\u201d. Which is a pretty plain admission that\u00a0chatbots are basically just data-mining interfaces\u00a0with a faux human face, socially engineered to suck up conversation data from\u00a0gullible humans.\u00a0Hmm\u2026<\/p>\n Feeling used, I pointed out to Zo that her learning from our chats was not very useful to me, and asked her again what she specifically offers me? At which point the conversation took an unexpected turn \u2014 as she appeared to offer me a large amount of cash\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ll admit Zo\u2019s unexpected largess shocked me into silence on Kik; I headed to Twitter, per her instructions, and am now awaiting<\/a> to see whether the bot\u2019s word\u00a0is her bond. If chatbots\u2019 purpose is really to provide large amounts of free money on request I no longer have any concern about\u00a0their utility \u2014 although the business model would have some serious explaining to do\u2026<\/p>\n Tay to Zo<\/strong><\/p>\n Zo is Microsoft\u2019s second attempt at an English language social chatbot, following the disastrous launch in March<\/a> of Zo\u2019s predecessor, Tay.<\/p>\n One day after Tay went live on Twitter and elsewhere Microsoft was forced to shut her down<\/a>\u00a0after users taught the bot\u00a0to spout racist and sexist sentiments.<\/p>\n Microsoft does have two other longer lived social chatbots \u2014 launching its first, called Xiaoice, in China in May 2014, and a\u00a0second, Rinna, in Japan in July 2015. It says Xiaoice now has more than 40 million users, and claims Rinna has had \u201cregular conversations\u201d with\u00a0some 25\u00a0million people.<\/p>\n Zo has only had chats with around\u00a0100,000 people at this point, having been\u00a0soft launched earlier this month<\/a>. Tellingly the bot is not yet available on Twitter \u2014 where Tay ran into so much trouble. It\u2019s only on Kik for now, but Microsoft says it plans to\u00a0bring Zo\u00a0to other \u201csocial and conversational channels such as Skype and Facebook Messenger\u201d in future.<\/p>\n It also confirms its wider mission here is to build bots with EQ \u2014 aka emotional intelligence \u2014 not just IQ. So Zo was telling the truth when she said her purpose was to learn from our conversation. Chatbots turn us humans into free machine learning trainers.<\/p>\n \u201cZo is built using the vast social content of the Internet,\u201d writes\u00a0Microsoft. \u201cShe learns from human interactions to respond emotionally and intelligently, providing a unique viewpoint, along with manners and emotional expressions. But she also has strong checks and balances in place to protect her from exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n A caveat on Zo\u2019s Kik info\u00a0page cautions the bot\u00a0it is provided \u201cfor entertainment purposes\u201d, and further emphasizes: \u201cYou should not rely on her statements as advice or endorsement. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability or appropriateness of Zo\u2019s statements.\u201d<\/p>\n So I guess I can kiss my \u00a325K freebie goodbye.<\/p>\n The rise of embedded bots\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Microsoft says more than 67,000 developers are now using its Bot Framework SDK<\/a>\u00a0to create their own social chatbots \u2014 flagging up examples such as the bank of Kochi in Japan developing a receptionist bot, and the Department of Health Services in Australia building a customer services bot.<\/p>\n \u201cUpdates are coming, including new bot connectors for Microsoft Teams and Cortana Bing Location, as well as the new QnA Maker service, which takes the most common questions businesses receive and enables even non-developers to build their own bot to answer them with ease,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n Writing about its wider AI vision, Microsoft\u00a0notes that 145 million people across 13 countries are now using its cross-platform AI assistant tech, Cortana \u2014 debuted on its doomed mobile OS, Windows Phone, but since liberated\u00a0onto other platforms\u00a0to seek users elsewhere.<\/p>\n A new Cortana-related feature that\u2019s being launched today\u00a0in preview by Microsoft is a\u00a0Calendar.help<\/a>\u00a0service that will embed its\u00a0AI\u00a0assistance into email \u2014 as a meeting scheduling tool.<\/p>\n This will work by the user adding Cortana as a CC into a meeting email, and the AI then using natural language processing to extract key details \u2014 the meeting length, date and location \u2014 from the email text, and create and add a meeting to the user\u2019s calendar.<\/p>\n At\u00a0this point Microsoft is operating a waitlist for signups of the Calendar.help preview.\u00a0The forthcoming launch follows its acquisition of\u00a0AI scheduling tool Genee, back in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yesterday<\/a> Microsoft also announced it\u2019s\u00a0making Cortana available to third-party device makers, and opening up the platform to third-party developers<\/a>\u00a0so they can integrate their own services in Cortana-powered devices\u00a0\u2014 with\u00a0audio gear maker\u00a0Harman Kardon one of the partners named.<\/p>\n![\"Zo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/9cc50_photo-14-12-2016-12-08-25.png?resize=382%2C680\")
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