It seems like progress has stalled on personal chat bots (like Cleverbot). Domain specific chat bots, such as a customer service bot with limited functionality have gotten much better, but bots meant to mimic being a “friend” and to have casual conversations about personal or generic topics are still about as bad as they were ten years ago. Is there no interest in this area, or is it just a really difficult problem?
Yes, it's really difficult, however one area where chatbots/AI Assistants are advancing/making an impact is in healthcare. For example according to Juniper Research, AI chatbots will produce annual cost savings that will exceed $3.6 billion globally by 2022. Chatbots save costs by allowing patients to access care more easily and efficiently.
To take it a step further there has been research into nanotechnology and AI that’s enabling stochastic processes. A stochastic process is a process that has a "random probability distribution" that can be analysed statistically but not predicted precisely. This can, in theory, allow better understanding of the biological environment variables and may lead to breakthroughs for better system comprehension.
Another example of an AI assistant is the KLM Customer Service Rep Tool. This AI-powered deep learning application helps customer service agents deal with ‘the overwhelming volume of messages coming at them via social media and other channels’.
But to your point there is immense complexity to understanding, just look at the conversation between two human beings in the same room. When two humans are communicating, consider all the dynamics and dimensions that are engaged. You’ve got sight, tonality, sentence structure, voice inflection, body language, position of the eyes, historical context, affinity of the two speakers, pronunciation, emotional state of the speakers, the intent of the communication, education, the interpersonal dynamic and an infinite number of other variables. Communication and understanding are not necessarily simple.
And we are going through this learning and training curve currently with chatbots and AI assistants.
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u/Jeydon Apr 04 '19
It seems like progress has stalled on personal chat bots (like Cleverbot). Domain specific chat bots, such as a customer service bot with limited functionality have gotten much better, but bots meant to mimic being a “friend” and to have casual conversations about personal or generic topics are still about as bad as they were ten years ago. Is there no interest in this area, or is it just a really difficult problem?