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How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

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Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#21

Post by AJ007 »

zaidf wrote: post #11

There is a lot of hype about chat bots but let's not confuse that for usage. Tell me what chat bot you use on a regular basis? To me, chat bots seem like a step backward, at least for the use cases I've seen them applied for.

I think there is a two part thing going on here, besides a lot of PR hype cycle echo chamber.

a) The anticipation that AI will be good enough to understand an instruction set through sentences. In some cases it already is.

b) Text isn't so much the interface but audio-voice interfaces are. The stuff from A) combined with voice recognition.

It is somewhat weird because Siri has been around for a while, Google voice recognition/search has been around for a while and been really good. Maybe the big aha moment was Amazon letting users actually input commands like ordering a product rather than getting dumped on search results for the web page to do it.

If the whole chat-voice-smart assistant thing is a winner takes all market, that winner probably replaces Google in mass market use cases for search. That is a really big deal and companies are salivating over the possibility.

Perhaps another factor is because other companies don't really have a knowledge graph like Google's, they are letting third party developers plug in.

So, the big tech companies have their products commercially available already and are being used by lots of people, the small tech companies have stuff they have been working on and are joining the hype cycle in hopes of being acquired.

So in summary the larger story is "chat bot" really = AI voice assistant which is plausibly the next Google eclipsing platform, and about as massive of a deal for the tech industry as the smart phone and self driving car.

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#22

Post by j45 »

treve wrote: post #19
veb wrote: post #4

Huh? People have been working on chat bots since forever. I mean, especially on IRC, with Eggdrop. My favourite was always: https://github.com/jamesoff/bmotion Example: https://github.com/jamesoff/bmotion/wiki/Examples

ELIZA was around in 1964: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

Cool read, thanks for sharing!

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#23

Post by rakoo »

j45 wrote: post #17
igorgue wrote: post #9

Twitter invented mentions, even tho IRC had them way before. Kik invented Chat bots, even tho IRC had them way before. Your next startup invented xyz, even tho IRC had them way before.

I always saw twitter as an inverted IRC client - where you address a @Person instead of a #Channel.

In some sense, twitter is IRC: you address @persons that meet on the same place you are, talking about some #topic. At one point I had the idea to actually write an IRC server where you would join a #channel that was actually a #topic, and the server would send you @people's tweets as messages. The usual guidelines for IM (putting @person's name before the message) would even be enough to reply to someone's tweet.

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#24

Post by j45 »

rakoo wrote: post #23
j45 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always saw twitter as an inverted IRC client - where you address a @Person instead of a #Channel.

In some sense, twitter is IRC: you address @persons that meet on the same place you are, talking about some #topic. At one point I had the idea to actually write an IRC server where you would join a #channel that was actually a #topic, and the server would send you @people's tweets as messages. The usual guidelines for IM (putting @person's name before the message) would even be enough to reply to someone's tweet.

Couldn't agree more. Twitter is the IRC paradigm with a different presentation of messages by user in all their channels/#hashtags, vs in each channel.

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#26

Post by dalke »

chocolatebunny wrote: post #18
igorgue wrote: post #9

Twitter invented mentions, even tho IRC had them way before. Kik invented Chat bots, even tho IRC had them way before. Your next startup invented xyz, even tho IRC had them way before.

Well everything this labeled "social media" is just a clone of either newsgroups or irc or both.

Whoo-hoo! I get to be "that" person. Take a look at the education computer system PLATO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)#Innova... :

> Pad (general-purpose computer message board), 1973, the first such, and a few months later, system-defined Notesfiles, precursors to Unix Newsgroups, Digital DECnotes and Lotus Notes.

> Talkomatic (text-based) (6-room, 5-persons-per-room real-time chat room), 1973, precursor to Instant Messaging Conferences.

Plus, emoticons in the 1970s! http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2012/09/plato-emoticons-rev...

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#27

Post by phamilton »

zaidf wrote: post #11

There is a lot of hype about chat bots but let's not confuse that for usage. Tell me what chat bot you use on a regular basis? To me, chat bots seem like a step backward, at least for the use cases I've seen them applied for.

Slack deploy bot plus an internal bot or two we use for user support.

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#28

Post by mschuster91 »

igorgue wrote: post #8

Kik is also the #1 on spam bots, seriously their amount of spam (scammer accounts) is worrying.

yep and this is why I killed it off. Srsly the amount of junk I recieved is ridiculous.

I mean, if it were actual "junk" (you get what I mean), I mighta be happy, but it's all "come to my private webcam site" kinda crap.

This is, maybe, why Whatsapp is so hugely successful: the cost of SMS/phone verification is too high for scammers.

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#29

Post by AznHisoka »

AJ007 wrote: post #21
zaidf wrote: post #11

There is a lot of hype about chat bots but let's not confuse that for usage. Tell me what chat bot you use on a regular basis? To me, chat bots seem like a step backward, at least for the use cases I've seen them applied for.

I think there is a two part thing going on here, besides a lot of PR hype cycle echo chamber. a) The anticipation that AI will be good enough to understand an instruction set through sentences. In some cases it already is. b) Text isn't so much the interface but audio-voice interfaces are. The stuff from A) combined with voice recognition. It is somewhat weird because Siri has been around for a while, Google voice re…

So you think people will use voice to do general informational queries like what's a cure for asthma? Not just navigational queries like how to go to the theater?

Re: How Kik Predicted the Rise of Chat Bots

#30

Post by pcmaffey »

AJ007 wrote: post #21
zaidf wrote: post #11

There is a lot of hype about chat bots but let's not confuse that for usage. Tell me what chat bot you use on a regular basis? To me, chat bots seem like a step backward, at least for the use cases I've seen them applied for.

I think there is a two part thing going on here, besides a lot of PR hype cycle echo chamber. a) The anticipation that AI will be good enough to understand an instruction set through sentences. In some cases it already is. b) Text isn't so much the interface but audio-voice interfaces are. The stuff from A) combined with voice recognition. It is somewhat weird because Siri has been around for a while, Google voice re…

This is the theory. And I don't think you're wrong at all in analyzing the motives/endgame here.

But there are reasons texting arose as a preferred alternative to voice. Audio interfaces will win in cars, possibly homes and other well-defined private spaces. But text is ubiquitous and visual interfaces are so much faster, as audio is limited by its linear dimension.

No doubt, voice control will be a huge market, but I think the idea is more alluring than the reality will prove.

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