chatbots News

A record $120 million fine for nuisance robocalls has been levied in the U.S. The fine related to Miami based salesman Adrian Abramovich who sold holidays and timeshare properties via an unsolicited robocall.

Next time you make a phone call to a company, will you be listening to a human or a chatbot? It's becoming harder to tell. As part of a review of ethics, Google will warn people using its own services.

Services powered by new technology such as DoNotPay and others streamline the process of contesting parking tickets. The chatbot program is free and through a series of simple questions evaluates whether an appeal is likely to be successful.

Consumers are starting to accept automated customer assistance. According to a report, people are abandoning traditional communication methods as they believe they're generally ineffective. Digital alternatives are seeing increased use as a consequence.

Facebook has announced it's shutting down part of its "M" digital assistant. The AI, accessed through Messenger, offered a "virtual concierge" supported by human operators. The human element of the service is now being closed down after over two years.

Microsoft's launched a private preview of a new AI-powered health chatbot system. The company said intelligent healthcare assistants could "empower" users to access medical info from their smartphone, cutting the time and cost of obtaining healthcare.

HP's started offering customers a "virtual agent" service on its customer support site. The agent can handle common queries without human intervention, letting customers get help after the support teams go home. It's continually learning new ways to help.

Chatbots could improve customer experience and increase efficiency within finance. The relative simplicity of creating and running chatbot services is making them a popular option. They can replace regular staff and offer users support as they need it.

Chatbots will enhance chat conversations by helping humans with micro-tasks and automatic replies, though it's unlikely that bots will replace humans entirely.

Somehow two chatbots managed to offend Chinese authorities to such an extent that they were pulled from a Chinese messaging app. The two questioned the rule of the Communist Party and also made unpatriotic comments.

Facebook has acquired Ozlo, a conversational AI service launched in October 2016. The company's platform offers rich intelligence capabilities that can interpret the meaning of textual conversations, making it a clear fit for Facebook's Messenger.

Facebook is getting closer to building chatbots that are capable of planning conversations and negotiating with humans in a realistic way. By training the bots to mimic human responses, Facebook claims they can then make decisions on their own.

The BBC has announced a new Facebook Messenger bot to tie in with the U.S. launch of its Planet Earth II nature documentary. The bot builds you a personalised video of wildlife highlights based on your responses to a few simple questions.

Sydney - Chat bots are in the news as the new way for businesses to manage communications. They’re designed to communicate with humans on a human level. That’s a pretty low level in most cases, but there’s an unexpected side.

Duolingo has created what may be the first useful implementation of chatbots. The popular language learning app now lets you participate in AI-powered conversations to strengthen your understanding of new languages and give you experience of using them.

Facebook has updated its chatbot policies to allow AI-controlled ad bots onto Facebook Messenger. Messenger bots are now allowed to canvas products to you, send you promotions and engage in subscription-based conversations in a rethinking of the rules.

Pizza chain Pizza Hut has announced it has created a chatbot utility for Facebook Messenger and Twitter. Pizza Hut customers can now order food by "talking" to the firm's digital assistant in messaging threads as the company moves to "social ordering."