AI: When Will Robots Learn to Chat?

Chances are, if you've ever used a digital assistant, you've run up against a problem that's proven difficult to solve: They may be good at certain helpful tasks, but they aren't great conversationalists. It's easy to understand why that might be something companies like Amazon.com Besides the obvious--people would presumably prefer an alternative to barking out carefully formatted commands--it could also make the assistants more useful. A few ideas: They could better understand what they're being asked to do, leading to fewer errors. They could help lead people toward information they need that they might not know exactly how to ask for. Or assistants could set people at ease at critical times, making people more likely to use them.