Chatbots

• Chatbots or chatterbots are dialogue agents.
• It's pretty simple to write simple versions of these.
• Recall the single digit responses for the automated bank service. That's a simple chatbot.
• You can do these with finite state automata.
• You can also do simple text based agents with FSAs.
• Eliza is an example of a simple FSA agent.
• You can of course become more sophisticated and include lexical, syntax and semantic systems.
• Chatbots only really work if they're domain specific.
• You can integrate speech recognition and production.
• It's easy to build simple chatbots, but as they become more sophisticated they become appreciably more complex.
• Trains (by James Allen and others) is an example of a system that is state of the art (still) but probably not economically viable.
• These types of systems are hot. Lots of companies are now building them; they're the modern equivalent of a 90s web site; every company needs one.