Building a better conversational AI assistant requires emotion

As developers look toward what makes a well-rounded conversational AI assistant, it's imperative to denote the differences between utility and intelligence. Today's intelligent agents can be useful -- the can sell a product, direct a call or answer a question without human intervention. But the chatbots of the future will be more flexible and interactive and should be able to "offer products and services in a human way," said Sasha Caskey, CTO of digital platform Kasisto. To train a computer to replicate human activity and speech, developers should start with contextual interactions, Karen Myers, lab director at SRI International AI Center, said at the AI World Conference Expo in Boston. The first generations of chatbots were focused on one-off interactions -- book this event on a calendar, answer this specific question or direct a user to a webpage.