What are bots? Here’s the background. - a podcast by OReilly Media

O’Reilly Bots Podcast: Why AI-driven chatbots are a big deal right now.

We’re launching a new pop-up podcast about bots. In this first episode of the O’Reilly Bots Podcast, I’m joined byPeter Skomorochto talk background: why everyone is suddenly interested in bots and what they promise to do, and what sorts of applications are beginning to emerge.

Bots have generated enormous interest in the last few months; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has evencalled bots"the new apps."Bots (not the robot kind) are bits of software that use artificial intelligence to converse in human terms.

As AI improves and the app ecosystem stagnates, they promise to create new, sophisticated, low-friction interfaces to all sorts of transactions. You can already call anUber car by talking to Amazon's Echo, and you can send comments to Barack Obama througha Facebook Messenger bot. Any big organization that doesn't have a bot yet will probably have one soon.

If you're interested in bots, be sure to check outO'Reilly Bot Day, a day-long program in San Francisco on October 19, 2016, that Pete and I are hosting. It's for anyone who's building bots, implementing bots, or thinking about bot strategy.

Links

• Xiaoice, Microsoft's popular Chinese-language bot

• X.ai, a scheduling bot. Daniel Tunkelangwrote about a conversationbetween X.ai andClara, another AI scheduling assistant.

• Estherbot, a bot that answers basic questions about Esther Crawford's resume.

• Howdy,automat.ai,api.ai, andwit.ai: good places to start for people interested in building their first bots

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