There’s a lot of hype about “chatbots” lately in Silicon Valley. These are little artificial-intelligence programs that work like personalized assistants.* Microsoft talks about a bot that is a personal digital assistant that knows you, knows about your world and helps you with everyday tasks like ordering pizza using text, Skype or Slack. However, the digital beings (e.g., Alexa, Operator, Assist, x.ai, Siri, Magic, Fin, Messenger) that claim to make our lives easier, organize us and even make us feel emotionally better off are not the Nirvana we expect. Many times, chatbots cannot accomplish a task without the help of a human being in the “back office” somewhere around the world (be more inquisitive about this the next time you use a bot!). The bots may misinterpret what you want done because of your accent, tone or the way you phrased your question or need.
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