How do you define a bot?

It’s how you have a conversation with software through a chat platform answered Amir. Chris felt that understanding the behaviour was the important element. Matt was more in agreement with Amir feeling that it was more about the interaction conversation.

Does text matter? Are other interfaces important?

Chris started off talking about our move from folders and files on computers into conversations with smart technology in our pockets. Music is a great example, you can talk to music services to find your music. As a user, you don’t really care how you ask, just that you have an answer. Amir brought up the topic of expense reports – not popular with anyone in the audience. Why? Because the user interaction to get your money is not enjoyable. If we had a personal assistant that made this easy for us, we’d probably enjoy it – and this is where bots come in. Does it matter if it’s text or voice? No – it’s about getting something done easily.

Do bots need to be intelligent?

Matt felt that until AI gets to the point of understanding intuitively, we would need to limit ourselves to ‘domain restricted bot’. This is where users are familiar with the goal and how to get there rather than a general conversation. Chris was clear that intelligence is critical. When you request a service like Uber, you want a car to turn up – not a pizza (although you might like the pizza!) For Chris, it’s about meeting or exceeding expectations by limiting themselves to what they know users want to achieve. Amir stepped back, considering that Artificial Intelligence is about specific use case. What’s in an image? What is the context of a discussion when a user needs help? Is the bot able to respond to sentiment such as frustration. Then there’s understanding what users say – and adding in the layer of conversational context. For example if you asked “how tall is Obama?” then asked “and his wife?” – the context of the previous question is key to understanding the second question.

Can a bot be perceived as intelligent?

Bots need to pass the beer test (would you take them for a beer because the service was good?) and not the Turing test (is this a human) – posed Amir. A bot acting consistently over time that responds in a similar way is likely to be perceived well. One that has different answers to similar questions is not going to be considered well thought Chris. You have to minimise the frustration with bots stated Matt. Rather than ‘I don’t understand that’, bots that can get across what they can do ‘I don’t understand that, but I can help with A, B, C’ is likely to have a much better user response. Matt thought it was important to plan for the pitfalls. “Intelligence is the absence of stupid” mentioned Beerud.

Amir was very clear – solve one thing well with your bot. If that works, then add more things, but always serve one purpose well at the outset. This can be bots that broaden services – or that go incredibly deep added Chris. ‘Restricted domain bot’ reminded Matt from an earlier question. Keep the scope tight – Twillio use a Slack bot that checks if phone numbers are Twilio numbers. Matt could do this manually, but using a bot to solve one specific problem has proven extremely useful.

Should bots have personalities?

Pixar’s character and script development for movies applies to bots too. Where did the bot start out, what’s its past, how did it get where it is today? It’s not just tone and scripting – humour is important too – and it’s one of the hardest areas to get right given the complexities of language and audience, said Chris. Amir mentioned that context is key too which Chris agreed with using the example of a weather forecasting cat which moved from humorous to being annoying very quickly. With anything you’re building – you have to know who you’re building it for, brought up Matt. This helps to design a bot that will be appropriate. Chris added that you have to add the place/time that the user is using the bot into the design considerations too.  Amir mentioned that it’s value first – personality and humour are decorators, you have have to deliver the value first.

The original article can be found here.