What Are ChatBots and How They Will Change Usual Communication
In the future people will not have to communicate online with other people, instead we’ll communicate with ChatBots – specimens of artificial intelligence, which will be able to solve any of our problems.
The founder of Endurance Robots Georgy Fomichev and his ChatBot told us what ChatBots are and how they are going to change present communication.
George Fomichev
— What are ChatBots and what tasks can they solve?
— The concept of ChatBot first appeared in 1960, when an American researcher decided to make a certain interface to communicate with the computer, while the computer emulated a conversation with a psychologist. Today the ChatBot is an interface for the man-computer interaction by means of a human language. Thus, the ChatBot of today is a system recognizing human speech, both written (texts) and oral (voice). It is important that you make your request in any form, and the ChatBot answers also informally.
— Where are they used?
— Today ChatBots can operate practically in any messenger: — Viber, Telegram, Skype, Facebook, Twitter but Instagram and WhatsApp. They do not function there, but the world waits for this option to appear.
— Why in messengers?
— The main idea of ChatBots lies in the fact that in the nearest future people will spend less time on the Internet and social networks than in messengers. Even now over 50% of people prefer to communicate not on the Internet or social media but in messengers. That’s why a great many of companies need to shift the focus of their activities from the Internet to messengers. This is what ChatBots are for: to order pizza online for home delivery, to call the doctor, to learn the weather forecast. Accordingly, every company will have its own virtual companion.
— Why is it better than mobile applications?
— People are tired of applications. Personally, I haven’t downloaded any new application this year, but delete old ones.
Applications are not on-trend anymore. Everybody goes for simplification, that’s why everybody is slowly switching to ChatBots.
— How long ago did that trend come to Russia?
— In Russia it is still quite new. Companies have been evaluating the new trend so far. While in America and Europe, this topic is gaining momentum, people are not afraid to spend trouble on it and money. In Russia, the first serious project related to ChatBots is TalkBank. This is a platform that can provide customers with a full banking service right in the messenger. Entering the market, «Tinkoff» claimed to be a bank without offices, and it attracted a lot of customers. TalkBank is even a more modern technology, with it you do not need a mobile application or a call center at all — you have everything in your messenger.
— In what other spheres besides banking are ChatBots common?
There are many directions of activity in the world — beginning with the mobile plumber or doctor calling and ending with the insurance purchasing. I tested two companies that had created Bots-financial consultants. Roughly speaking, you want the robot to monitor your income and expenses and advise you how to achieve the set financial intentions. And the Bot can tell you, «You bought too expensive coffee» or «This week you spent too much — refrain from spending at the weekend.»
— Can you give more examples?
— The ChatBots, which advise you what to buy, are very popular in the USA. The principle is very simple. A girl sends her selfie to the Bot and gets its advice, “This lipstick is good on you. Buy this foundation to match it.” In this way the Bot stimulates sales, and according to the developers, brings about million dollar sales revenue. If this is much or little is a philosophical question, but the fact is that this is a new way of communication with millennials, i.t. people born around 2000 and later.
— What scenario of the ChatBot development in Russia do you see?
— It’s difficult to say. Some things do not work out in Russia, such as Snapchat, for example. But if everything will go right then it is possible to expect that in 2018-2019 companies will actively introduce ChatBots for messengers. Anyhow, the budgets of big banks and insurance companies have already millions for development of this sphere.
— Do I understand it correctly that ideally ChatBots should replace people in the services sector? And many professions will just disappear?
— Absolutely. The personnel in the spheres with routine operations will be reduced. Support services, call centers should be no more in five years. We have already signed an agreement with Sberbank and are working at a pilot project for them. It should be noted that the quality of call-centers operators are far from being ideal. But for the ChatBot to completely replace the man, it is necessary first of all to upgrade the organization of the inner business process. However, not everybody is ready for that.
— Now let’s discuss the technical side of the problem: where does the ChatBot look for the answers to the questions? Does it surf the Internet or do you upload certain information onto it, (create a database of some knowledge in it) where it looks for the answers?
— There are several ways. The simplest is when you upload a base of questions and answers. But there is a difficulty, if the ChatBot’s sensitivity level is high, it might not answer to a similar question. Perhaps, it knows the answer but says, “I don’t know” because of being unsure. If the threshold sensitivity is too low, the ChatBot will tend to give wrong answers. So the questions/answers base is not a very good option.
We are working at still another option – text processing. The task is to attach a certain meaning to the text. We do not create a base of questions, we work with answers only. We add to the answers various linguistic parameters: synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms, etc. Thanks to a great variety of the additional information, the text gets a meaningful context for the ChatBot. The most complicated is the third variant, when you program the so called intentions, so that the ChatBot could give a correct answer. For example, you ask the ChatBot about the weather. The ChatBot should ask for more information: “when and where?” These are important parameters of your intention. This kind of the Bot is the most advanced and is sure to give you the answer you expect to get.
— Is the ChatBot a self-learning system?
— Theoretically, it can learn by itself, but the problem is too serious to be solved. So far nobody managed to hit home. Whoever tried to configure the self-learning function failed. The point is that ChatBots have no notion of moral or ethics, and they accept whatever they are given. That’s why self- learning Bots either learnt something different and became fascists or began to contradict themselves and went bugs.
— How much will it cost the ChatBot development for a company?
— To set the correct task will take great pains and expenses. The company should clearly understand what business problems they want to solve and what metrics of their activity to improve: the service time of customers, volume of orders or something else. The development itself may be rather simple and not that expensive: dozens of thousands of rubles or, perhaps, hundreds of thousands. But if you want a deep integration then it may cost you millions.
Why human interaction (communication) is destined to die
— What future for ChatBots, say, in five years, do you see?
— I believe that in five years an era of people who will communicate mostly with ChatBots will come. People will start create their own digital doubles. For example, I’m driving home and get phone calls from friends, wife or parents who wonder where I am or what I’m doing. Not to answer them all, saying the same things, I could use my ChatBot, which would inform everybody interested about my plans. Let my ChatBot post the news about my activities in social networks. I consider that in five years it will become trendy.
— What is your prognosis based on?
— Actually, it is already trendy in Japan. About 200 thousand personal ChaBots have been created there. Schoolchildren and students create their personal doubles for communication. Now when you’re asking me questions, my ChatBot could be answering you instead of me. Just imagine: the time of the Internet of People 2.0 has come. Each of us has a personal ChatBot. You upload your list of questions for your article onto your device. Your ChatBot contacts mine and dozens of others to get necessary answers to your questions.
— How can a person create one’s own ChatBot? Should not he/she know programming?
— The idea is as follows: the ChatBot will be able to read your posts in social networks, emails, messages and texts and self-learn. I tried to do it on the basis of my messages and posts on Twitter, but the Bot didn’t do well. It confuses important things. I’m sure that eventually, these issues will be solved. Anyhow, it is not a weak artificial intelligence already but intermediate. Reminds me of the movie “Her”.
— Don’t you think it will kill human communication?
— Communication is already killed. Visit a café or restaurant and look around. You will see that most people communicate not with their companions at the table but with their gadgets. And this is normal. People do not communicate with each other personally much. This process is inevitable.
