While some surveys show that people prefer to talk to a human as opposed to a chatbot, whether they're shopping online or dealing with a customer service issue, that hasn't dissuaded companies from adopting them. A 2019 Salesforce report found that 53% of service organizations expected to use chatbots within 18 months. According to Statista, the size of the global chatbot market could surpass $1.25 billion by 2025, a steep climb from $190 million in 2016. A customer's satisfaction -- or lack thereof -- with a chatbot ultimately depends on the scenario and the capabilities of the chatbot in question. Obviously, a chatbot that fails to answer basic questions will lead to frustration.

Another week, another privacy horror show: Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit text message service for people experiencing serious mental health crises, has been using "anonymized" conversation data to power a for-profit machine learning tool for customer support teams. Crisis Text Line's response to the backlash focused on the data itself and whether it included personally identifiable information. But that response uses data as a distraction. That's the real travesty--when the price of obtaining mental health help in a crisis is becoming grist for a machine learning mill. And it's not just users of CTL who pay; it's everyone who goes looking for help when they need it most.

A study by Cornell University researchers and the Crisis Text Line crisis-counselor platform described how volunteer crisis counselors' use of language evolves. The team used state-of-the-art natural language processing to learn that the language employed by counselors systematically changes, based on their training and empathy for callers in distress, giving rise to unique voices for calming those distressed individuals. The researchers analyzed more than 1 million anonymized texts from about 3,500 counselors on the Crisis Text Line. Crisis Text Line's Robert Filbin said the study' insights will help the platform train and guide crisis counselors. Cornell's Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil said, "This is an example of how natural language processing techniques can assist the development of skills in conversation-heavy professions."

AI can be our worst enemy or our best friend, but we do have a choice. Humans have a bias towards fear induced decisions, what do I mean by that? Our brains have evolved over millions of years, but have only been hit with technology in the past hundred years or so. Our brains are still geared to preservation, sexual reproduction and just plain survival. To paraphrase the words of the famous physicist Niels Bohr who was referring to quantum physics'If you are not shocked by the prospect of AI and its effect, on the human race you have not understood it.'

Deciding whom to help first can be a life-or-death decision. At the Crisis Text Line, a text messaging-based crisis counseling hotline, these deluges have the potential to overwhelm the human staff. So data scientists at Crisis Text Line are using machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to pull out the words and emojis that can signal a person at higher risk of suicide ideation or self-harm. The computer tells them who on hold needs to jump to the front of the line to be helped. They can do this because Crisis Text Line does something radical for a crisis counseling service: It collects a massive amount of data on the 30 million texts it has exchanged with users.

Deciding whom to help first can be a life-or-death decision. At the Crisis Text Line, a text messaging-based crisis counseling hotline, these deluges have the potential to overwhelm the human staff. So data scientists at Crisis Text Line are using machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to pull out the words and emojis that signal a person at higher risk of suicide ideation or self-harm. The computer tells them who on hold needs to jump to the front of the line to be rescued. They can do this because Crisis Text Line does something radical for a crisis counseling service: It collects a massive amount of data on the 30 million texts it has exchanged with users.

Chatbots and virtual assistants are getting a lot of attention in the AI world these days, and for good reason, as some of these tools are developing impressive skills. But there's more to the technology than conversational ability, and enterprises are finding value implementing component pieces of virtual assistants -- automated bots and natural language processing -- in other ways. "If it's hard for Siri to figure out [natural language chat], it's going to be hard for us," said Brian Canty, CEO and co-founder of Lea, a San Francisco-based company that has developed a Facebook messenger bot. Lea -- which stands for live event assistant -- delivers personalized concert recommendations to users. The original idea behind Lea was to build a conversational agent that users could chat with to explain what they're interested in, Canty said.

Thanks to digital tools equipped with artificial intelligence, we're (theoretically) better than we used to be. Devices and apps track our workouts, our sleep patterns, our periods, our sexual encounters. We give these digital spies access to any intimate part of our lives, whatever they demand, because we assume having more data will allow us to see where we're failing, and to make improvements accordingly. But, if you had data on how the kinds of conversations you had with other people, would it make you a better person? Can AI actually teach us to communicate better -- you know, with other humans? Startup founder Nancy Lublin thinks the answer is yes.

Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that offers emotional support through text messaging, has spent four years connecting people in extreme emotional duress with online counselors. Now its founder is creating a startup called Loris.ai to help companies teach employees how to communicate. "There are a lot of companies right now that are fearful of having hard conversations," says Nancy Lublin, the founder of both Crisis Text Line and Loris.ai. "Managers are nervous having a one-on-one meeting with a direct report of a different gender, and that holds women back. People worrying about inclusion worry they'll get it wrong, and that holds people back."

The idea of access to artificial intelligence (often referred to as "AI" for short) for all is still at a nascent stage. Nevertheless, its potential is limitless – from refugee assistance, to helping students at risk of not completing school, to shortening the response time for teens who are in a personal crisis. During the recent Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, several nonprofit leaders discussed how the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies, such as machine learning, can dramatically improve lives – including those of many who live in the most underserved communities. Some of those citizens now benefiting from artificial intelligence include college and university students in Texas. College Forward, based in Austin, offers coaching and mentoring programs to help at-risk students continue their success in higher education so that they can eventually embark on a successful career.