Facebook Hopes Chatbots Can Solve App Overload

Mark Zuckerberg thinks you suffer from app overload, and last week he unveiled his solution: chatbots. Over the next few years, they may boost the bottom line of Facebook Inc. and other Internet companies while changing the way you use your smartphone. But first, they'll need to get a lot smarter. Chatbots--or bots, for short--are stripped-down software agents that understand what you type or say and respond by answering questions or executing tasks. Apple's Siri is a bot, and so is Amazon's Alexa.