BotCube

I’ve recently found some interesting statistics data about people using a bot. But it’s not just a simple bot, it’s a Hipster Cat Bot and it has recently surpassed 100 thousands users😳 There is a couple of interesting metrics inside: from different time graphs showing how people chat to a bot (for example only a few people chat during work hours) to that fact that Telegram users don’t really use this bot, they are more into dogs 🐶 https://medium.com/@electrobabe/5-fun-facts-about-100-000-users-chatting-with-a-cat-bd767b9a4d16 By the way this bot was built using Microsoft Bot Framework. It’s interesting that I start seeing more and more bots been built using this tool, it makes me start thinking about giving it a try. Have you used Microsoft Bot Framework or BotKit? Any obstacles? I’m curious - tell mehere please.

It's Sunday, so it's time for our #botoftheweek nomination! And today it goes to @meet bot by Google!. They've just released a new app called Hangouts Chat, basically it's just a new chat app on top of current Google infrastructure for business (which is actually pretty cool). Straight to the point: on top of it they have a bot called @meet, that understands natural language and can make appointments right in the chat. So let's say you and your team are talking about a brainstorm session next week to get some shit done. Usually, everyone starts looking at their calendars trying to find good time for a meeting, and it's kinda suck. With this new bot, you can tag @meet right in the conversation, and the bot will look at everyone's schedule and pick the best time and arrange the meeting. Sounds extremely cool! 🤖❤️ http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/how-this-simple-little-bot-in-googles-new-slack-killer-will-change-your-work-lif.html

Do you remember my long post about ads for voice assistants? According to the poll I’ve made - about 70% of this channel readers were against taking an ads-supported Google Home/Amazon Echo for free. But I have a very interesting piece of news for you: some Google Home owners reported hearing something extra when they asked for a summary of the day ahead from the smart speaker: an advertisement for the opening of Beauty and the Beast. But Google denied that the audio snippet was actually an ad, initially providing this rather strange statement: “This isn't an ad; the beauty in the Assistant is that it invites our partners to be our guest and share their tales.” So, while ads on connected speakers feel like a deal breaker right now, they’re probably going to become the norm pretty soon. http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/3/16/14948696/google-home-assistant-advertising-beauty-and-the-beast

Capital One has announced Eno - the first natural language SMS chatbot from a U.S. bank, allowing customers to ask questions using natural language. Customers can ask Eno questions about their checking and savings accounts using a text interface. Examples might include “What’s my balance?” or “How much credit do I have?” 🤑 The idea of this chatbot came up when the bank found that when it sent out automated fraud alerts through SMS, customers thought that the sender was human and started interacting with it. This is remarkably different than other brands chatbots on platforms like Facebook Messenger and Skype. Capital One believed Facebook has too much access to peoples’ private information, any Facebook Page admin can view the personal banking information of customers. https://www.macobserver.com/analysis/capital-one-natural-language-chatbot-eno/

It’s always a pleasure for me to post here articles about Slack team and their updates. I think that’s because these guys are awesome and doing really well on constantly improving and engaging a communication inside teams. And here is a new update - now they’ve improved a way we’re sharing and previewing links. Basically right now with a new SDK you can show some authenticated content at the link preview and also add some buttons to it to bring interactivity. More info is inside the article, these guys are rocking 🤘🏻 https://medium.com/slack-developer-blog/all-will-be-revealed-ebcad7c531f0

We have an article from a non-technical source today (Wall Street Journal) about AI. Basically it’s an interview with one of the most popular influencers in the world of AI nowadays - Andrew Ng. He is a chief scientist at Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. and co-founder of Coursera. And yep, he’s also a teacher at the super popular “Machine Learning” course at Coursera. They talked about speech recognition, singularity, automated jobs and plenty other hot topics. The main idea of the discussion though is that the hype about artificial intelligence is real this time. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-artificial-intelligence-will-change-everything-1488856320

It’s Sunday, so #botoftheweek is here, guys. Today we have a very interesting and useful one. How many times have you been suffering trying to come up with a new project name and then checking all the domains and social account availability? For me it was a real problem though. So, here is a bot called Namely. It’s a Facebook Messenger bot to help you decide your next projects’ name. You send it a name proposal and then it checks all the domains and social accounts availability for this name. Sounds like a huge time saver, right? 🙏🏻 https://www.messenger.com/t/416101528740470

I think that those of you who use Facebook Messenger on a daily basis have probably noticed that not long time ago it was sufficiently redesigned to add more camera features upfront. And as I’ve noticed most of my friends are completely annoyed by this change. So, what’s the implication behind this? How Facebook Messenger transformed from a chat app to a chat camera? Here is a great article from TechCrunch explaining the historical part of this phenomenon. https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/08/the-camera-is-the-keyboard/

Nowadays kids adore their new robot siblings which help them turn off the lights, answer homework questions and entertain friends at sleepover parties. While helping kids and bringing value to them these assistants can also be harmful in many ways. Some parents think that Alexa tolerates poor manners. To ask her a question, all you need to do is say her name, followed by the query. No “please.” And no “thank you” before asking a follow-up. Also, it creates patterns and reinforcement that so long as your diction is good, you can get what you want without niceties. Parents have noticed that queries previously made to adults are shifting to assistants, particularly for homework — spelling words, simple math, historical facts. Kids will go to their parents less, with both sides losing out on timeworn interactions. It’s a very hard question though to discuss in a couple of paragraphs, so I encourage you to read the article below to understand all the implications behind kids interacting with the robots. https://goo.gl/4FWIEe

I’ve just finished reading a very long article about one interesting experiment which was done with a Kik messenger chatbot named Kokobot. But the main story here is not about chatbots at all, it’s about people. Koko is ushering in a new era of emotional well-being, providing emotional support as a service to any product. With KokoBot, users have access to a peer-to-peer network that helps them deal with symptoms related to stress, anxiety and depression. For people who are suffering, knowing that others are in pain, and that they can do something about it, is one way of healing themselves. I highly encourage you to find some time to read an article below about the story how chatbots can help people with mental diseases. http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/2/14764620/koko-social-network-mental-health-depression-app-kik Try KokoBot on Telegram: @thekokobot

This is an early stage of the moment we have all been waiting for: WhatsApp reportedly started testing system that would let businesses talk directly to WhatsApp users. Seems like we’ll see such a desired bot platform API inside WhatsApp soon (in half of year 😂). I’m happy because our clients have always asked us to build a bot inside WhatsApp but it wasn’t possible in a native way. Also, it’s an important signal of how WhatsApp plans to make money from its massively popular service since it has not developed a business model in the three years since Facebook Inc bought it for a hefty $19 billion. http://venturebeat.com/2017/03/08/whatsapp-reportedly-testing-business-chat-tools/

Do you remember that story about Amazon Echo and a murder case? If not - the link is below. Finally, Amazon has agreed to hand over data from an Amazon Echo that may have been operating as an alleged murder took place, after the defendant consented. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39191056 More about the case is here: https://t.me/botcube/62