Facebook's botched Messenger rollout isn't hurting chatbots

Last year, Facebook triggered a wave of hype surrounding chatbots and conversational interfaces in the wake of its rollout of 100,000 bots on Messenger. Sadly, they seemed to have bit off more than they could chew; the campaign was largely a disaster, with the AI behind Facebook's chat platform failing to fulfill 70 percent of user requests. But the tech itself isn't to blame -- it's Facebook's premature and reckless roll-out. The tech is very sound, highly effective, and increasingly versatile. The industry doesn't need any hype or overselling to prove that.