Pushy AI Bots Nudge Humans to Change Behavior

When people work together on a project, they often come to think they've figured out the problems in their own respective spheres. If trouble persists, it's somebody else--engineering, say, or the marketing department--who is screwing up. That "local focus" means finding the best way forward for the overall project is often a struggle. But what if adding artificial intelligence to the conversation, in the form of a computer program called a bot, could actually make people in groups more productive? This is the tantalizing implication of a study published Wednesday in Nature.