How To Make Chatbots That Are Actually Worth Talking To

Every day now there's a new announcement of a major media or technology player betting big on the future of chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, that will do everything from helping us book trips to controlling our ever-smarter homes. Our natural language is, well, the most natural way for humans to communicate. Getting what we want through a conversation with an intelligent agent is bound to feel simpler than using a click-based interface, especially in a world where mobile rules. It feels like a new horizon is opening up, but also like a bit of déjà vu. In the early 2000s I worked as a copywriter on one of the first IM-based chatbots, named VaVaVirgil, who was built to help the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation educate teens on the dangers of smoking.