ChatBots & Artificial Intelligence: is the channel ready?

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first Dartmouth Conference, the research project that is credited with introducing'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) as we understand it today to the world. AI often seems like the stuff of science-fiction, but it did hit the headlines recently when Facebook announced it will use ChatBots to help businesses deliver automated customer support, online shopping guidance, and more'interactive' engagement. Facebook seems to have got its timing right, at least in the consumer market. This technology appears to growing in acceptance amongst the general public, who probably don't even really think of ChatBots as a form of AI. Perhaps because they're getting used to'personal assistants' like Apple's Siri.