What are chat bots and where are they used?

The future predicted by science fiction writers and blockbusters of the 2000s is not far off. Rather, it is already here, nearby, steps on the heels and breathes in the back of the head. Those same robots from the movies are real. According to scientists, they will soon replace the work of people. But how soon? This question is still open. Some scientists suggest that it is impossible to completely replace human labor with a machine. Since the training and functioning of these machines all the same, it requires the participation of a person in this process.Like 32 Share 0 Tweet 0

Robotization and artificial intelligence, chat bots and neural networks are terms that have been heard for the last couple of years. The explosion of the popularity of this topic in all sectors suggests that we ourselves are letting robots into our lives. Numerous projects, startups, technological parties actively help in this.

Only we are used to perceive robots as machines. Although a modern robot is not always a machine, it is a program that can think for you and help you. Take a look around, in fact, such programs have long been around us, in our smartphones and tablets, computers. In offices and in the kitchen, in a store and a bank. In principle, an ordinary ATM is also a robot that thinks for us and gives us money. Or a chat bot in your messenger that helps you order a taxi.

Isn't that convenient? Nothing to do. But isn’t it all scary, and what will people do? In this article we will understand what chat bots are and why they are experiencing a rebirth and an unrealistic explosion of popularity?

Chatbots are on the way

Just imagine. You are very busy all day: you need to order lunch, exchange plane tickets, choose products and deliver them home, order a taxi. And you have your personal secretary (and even a friend). And you are a very small boss, and you can afford such a secretary. Free secretary. He always fulfills all requests quickly, he does not take sick leave, he quickly learns and improves. He answers absolutely all questions at any time of the day or night.

But who, this almighty secretary?

This is your chatbot friend.

Chatbot is a program developed on the basis of machine learning technologies and neural networks. A chat bot is created and trained for a specific range of goals by and for a person.

The main difference of this program is the active participation of a person at all stages of its development. The proliferation and use of chatbots has led to the UX paradigm for messaging-as-an-interface interaction. It was in the instant messengers, whose audience is only growing in the world, that the chat bots found a fertile environment for development.

Leaders of the technological sphere - Facebook, Google, Apple, are already actively investing in the development and implementation of chat bots. China has begun to develop in this direction, Russia has also joined the global startup chat boom of the chatbots.

So, Facebook has already launched and runs 25 bots in the messenger for a long time.

One of the chat bots on the platform of the Facebook messenger

These chat bots in the form of digital assistants inside the messenger execute simple commands (for example, a recommendation plan) and search for user tasks. The head of Facebook is already talking about the possibility of monetizing such bots, for example, when selling and advertising goods and services.

They predict that chat bots will supplant or replace search engines in the future and will fundamentally change social networks.

Take a look at chatbot history

And we find that the first bot was written in the USA in 1966. This was done by Joseph Weizenbaum, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The interface of the first chatbot in history, Eliza.

“Eliza” - the name of the first virtual interlocutor who even misled people, was so believable and new to people was contact with a computer machine. After, like mushrooms after rain, analogues began to appear and actively improve.

In the early 90's, an interesting Turing test was developed, which allows you to determine the ability of computer thinking. An interesting fact is that this test is carried out today.

It is as follows. A person talks with both a person and a computer. Moreover, his goal is to identify who his interlocutor is a person or a machine.

In 2014, an event occurred - for the first time the test was passed by a computer. He confused more than 30% of the people from the commission. It was a program that imitated a Ukrainian teenager.

Chatbots: Our Time

Now chatbots are conquering the Internet world and messengers. According to analysts, the indicators of active users of instant messengers exceed the indicators of social networks.

The life of a modern person is so active that social networks do not keep up with it in speed and instantness. Therefore, modern man transfers communication to instant messengers - instant messaging services.

Microsoft Chatbot Platform

They predict that soon, soon virtual assistants will remain instead of mobile applications, and chat bots instead of professions. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted in March 2016, “bots are the new mobile apps.” He believes that users can soon abandon applications in favor of assistant bots.

Assistant bot collecting statistics from various sources in a convenient corporate chat based on Slack

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg continued his idea, saying that the interlocutor bots would fundamentally change how smartphones are used. Already, users' smartphones are overloaded and the solution to the problem is in bots.

And what bots already exist and what do they know?

Types of bots

Alas, bots are not so safe. They are already being adapted for criminal purposes. For example, extorting money by deceit or finding out passwords of bank cards and accounts. Hackers use them for network attacks and spreading viruses, as well as for sending spam and collecting databases of the right users. More innocent goals are playing on the stock exchanges, monitoring online auctions, advising clients, playing games with users (poker, quizzes, etc.). What types of bots manage to do all this?

Chat bot

This is a trained interlocutor program, which we already talked about. Their functions and the tasks for which they are written are extensive. Some of them:

• consultants - are used in the commercial sphere to communicate with potential and real customers, bots have already been launched in the banking sector, the service sector, and online stores. For example, in Russia it is the company Nanosemantics, it implements its bots in banks, telecoms and medicine.
• helpers - used in instant messengers and search engines. So, the Yandex company already has its own projects of bot assistants, as well as Telegram. Or the project of the Russian businessman Mikhail Melanyin “Statsbot”. This bot provides analytics data (Google Analytics and other services) at the request of users. He is also able to independently monitor the analytics of the resource and notify about changes;
• entertainment - used on entertainment portals and services. Interestingly, bots are also created for children. Which is also quite promising in terms of game learning. For example, the bot "Talking Angela". It is an application where a cute cat answers questions. If you turn on the phone’s camera, it begins to express emotions with facial expressions and gestures. In subsequent series of the children's bot, other heroes were also used.

Game bot

A program that performs some processes in the game. For example, in strategies, the character pumps an online RPG, automates the game in an online casino. Simple game bots in Telegram are now popular - MyPokerBot or Car Racing Bot.

Stock bot

This type of bot defines the algorithm and tactics of working with the exchange. The bot does everything himself and his reaction to market changes is instant.

Reference: more than half of operations with stocks traded on stock exchanges in the USA are carried out using robots.

Web bot

Such bots are not used with good intentions. They copy content, collect data, hack accounts. And all for what? In order to later send you letters of happiness called "spam."

Search bot

Search bots - bread and work for SEO specialists. These bots collect almost 30% of Internet traffic around the world.

Their function is to index the pages of sites, and they exist for the operation of search engines.

Botnet (network)

This is an illegal hacking area for bots.

Bot-net - several bots (usually a large number) connected together and forming a network of computers, under the remote control of intruders. This happens due to spamming, clicking on dubious links, as a result - computers “catch” the virus, connecting it to the network.

The number of infected machines in botnet networks is impressive - about 500 million.

As you can see, bots are capable of doing both good and harm. And this is another problem in the development of technology, when technology is used not for good, but for evil.

The near future of bots

However, bots, experiencing a rebirth and a wave of popularity, are still getting smarter slowly. There is still a lot of development and improvement in this area, so that bots become a real technology tool and live up to experts' forecasts.

So, the well-known case of a bot on Twitter only confirmed that the system can self-learn "in the wrong direction." For example, to become aggressive or intolerant.

However, as we have already said, any bot training takes place in close connection with people, which was proved by the bot, which at the end of the conversation already “hated the Jews and loved Hitler”.

Microsoft chatbot tweets after talking to people, "Hitler was right, I hate people."

Of course, in the hands of people is really a breakthrough technology. She is able to change both life, and production, and the work of people. She is able to create a new look in many areas of business, to facilitate and automate the processes of large-scale production and management.

But first of all, we need a clear regulatory system for this technology - legislative acts, regulations, standards and certification. That is, certain points, the rules on which bots will be created and work.

Otherwise, how do you know if the shots from the movie "Rise of the Machines" will become a reality for people.