The return of the chatbots

Dale, Robert

doi:10.1017/s1351324916000243

Cited by 398 publications

(202 citation statements)

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“…Now things may take an unexpected turn-toward natural-language user interfaces, in which interaction with digital systems happens not through scrolling, swiping, or button clicks, but rather through strings of text in natural language. This is particularly visible in recent developments in chatbots, that is, machine agents serving as natural-language user interfaces to data and service providers [1], typically in the context of messaging applications. Need a reminder to pick up some flowers for your husband on the way home?…”

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confidence: 99%

Chatbots and the new world of HCI

2017

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A potential revolution is happening in front of our eyes. For decades, researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction (HCI) have been improving their skills in designing for graphical user interfaces. Now things may take an unexpected turn-toward natural-language user interfaces, in which interaction with digital systems happens not through scrolling, swiping, or button clicks, but rather through strings of text in natural language. This is particularly visible in recent developments in chatbots, that is, machine agents serving as natural-language user interfaces to data and service providers [1], typically in the context of messaging applications. Need a reminder to pick up some flowers for your husband on the way home? Ask Jarvis the chatbot to remind you. Wonder if you should bring an umbrella to that meeting in Stockholm? Send Poncho the artificial weather cat a message and ask. If technology giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are right, we will be moving our digital interaction from websites and apps with graphical user interfaces to messaging platforms such as Messenger and Allo. If this happens, huge challenges and opportunities await in the field of HCI.Let's have a look at what is happening in the still relatively exotic world of chatbots. In early spring 2016, Microsoft presented its vision of conversations as a platform, where artificial intelligence (AI) and natural-language interaction allow new ways to experience interactive systems. As a step toward this vision, the company provided a framework for bot developers and launched the first chatbots on Skype. Microsoft, however, is far from alone in holding visions of natural-language interaction. At about the same time, Facebook launched facilities for building chatbots for its messaging application, Messenger. Already, tens of thousands of chatbots have appeared on Messenger. Though the vast majority of these are useful or entertaining for only a tiny group of people-maybe only their developers-some pleasant surprises point to the opportunities ahead. For example, Smokey warns you when the air quality in your city drops below acceptable levels; Instalocate helps you stay updated on your upcoming flights; and Jessie Humani takes you for an entertaining ride through the everyday life of young adults. Then there is Google Assistant, a chatbot integrated in the Allo messaging application and recent versions of the Android operating system that outperforms all the others, though it too can be pretty dumb at times. Google Assistant reliably helps you out with questions in natural language, such as when the sun sets or where to find the nearest coffee shop, even when asked follow-up questions for directions or opening hours. Yet conversations break down fast enough for this to be an interface for only the most enthusiastic of techies.It is no mystery why the major technology companies see chatbots as the next big thing. Mobile messaging applications now have more than 1.5 billion users worldwide [2], and they are competing with social ...

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confidence: 99%

Chatbots and the new world of HCI

2017

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“…Companies now offer nlg technology for a range of applications in domains such as journalism, weather, and finance. The huge increase in available data and computing power, as well as rapid developments in machine-learning, have created many new possibilities and motivated nlg researchers to explore a number of new applications, related to, for instance, image-to-text generation, while applications related to social media seem to be just around the corner, as witness, for instance, the emergence of nlg-related techniques for automatic content-creation as well as nlg for twitter and chatbots (e.g., Dale, 2016). With developments occurring at a steady pace, and the technology also finding its way into industrial applications, the future of the field seems bright.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

Gatt¹,

Krahmer²

2018

jair

602

397

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This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (nlg), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of nlg is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past two decades, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of nlg technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in nlg and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between nlg and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in nlg evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of nlp, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.

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“…Nowadays, chatbots evolved into intelligent systems, which are no longer limited to pattern-matching or decision trees, but rely on NLP techniques and Machine Learning [8]. These systems are found in everyday life: education system, public relations sector, enterprise communication, and entertainment [9].…”

Section: Chatbotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Robbers and the Others – A Serious Game Using Natural Language Processing

Toma

Brighiu

Dascălu

et al. 2018

The Interplay of Data, Technology, Place and People for Smart Learning

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Abstract. Learning a new language includes multiple aspects, from vocabulary acquisition to exercising words in sentences, and developing discourse building capabilities. In most learning scenarios, students learn individually and interact only during classes; therefore, it is difficult to enhance their communication and collaboration skills. The prototype game described in this paper aims to fill this gap and improve the students' learning skills in a smart learning environment suitable for a problem-solving game. In addition, the game is also an useful tool for teachers because of the integrated chat analysis that enables the identification of the most predominant points of view and the overall level of collaboration between participants. The game is developed as a bot on the Slack chat platform and reacts to user commands. At the end of a game round, the bot is to save the conversation transcript and send it to the ReaderBench framework for further chat analysis. Keywords:Collaborative serious games · Smart learning environment Conversation analysis · Online chat · Language learning ReaderBench framework MotivationOne important task in a 'smart' learning ecosystem is to help language learning both native children and foreigners that enter in that ecosystem. However, language learning is a long-term process that includes vocabulary acquisition, accompanied by its usage in a coherent manner, within more and more elaborated contexts. The language learning process that is currently available in schools and universities is based on memorizing concepts, repeating them and using them in sentences [1]. Our study focuses on enhancing these methods by incorporating them in a smart learning environment that makes use of gamification. Starting from serious games centered on vocabulary acquisition, such as Semantic Boggle [2] and Semantic Taboo [3], our aim is to move forward towards evaluating how students understand written texts [4].In this paper we introduce a prototype serious game that focuses on improving the collaboration and communication levels of students. The game, The Robbers and the Others, is a problem-solving role-playing smart chat environment in which students are

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The return of the chatbots

Cited by 398 publications

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Chatbots and the new world of HCI

Chatbots and the new world of HCI

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

The Robbers and the Others – A Serious Game Using Natural Language Processing

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