Chatbots, Humbots, and the Quest for Artificial General Intelligence
What began as a quest for artificial general intelligence branched into several pursuits, including intelligent assistants developed by tech companies and task oriented chatbots that deliver more information or services in specific domains. Progress quickened with the spread of low latency networking, then accelerated dramatically a few years ago. In 2016, task focused chatbots became a centerpiece of machine intelligence, promising interfaces that are more engaging than robotic answering systems and that can accommodate our increasingly phone based information needs. Hundreds of thousands were built. Creating successful non trivial chatbots proved more difficult than anticipated. Some developers now design for human chatbot (humbot) teams, with people handling difficult queries. This paper describes the conversational agent space, difficulties in meeting user expectations, potential new design approaches, uses of human bot hybrids, and implications for the ultimate goal of creating software with general intelligence.
CHI