Exploring what it takes to create a truly useful natural language user interface.

1. Exploring what it takes to create a
truly useful natural language U.I.
LET’S BUILD A
CHATBOT

2. ● Why should we care?
● What is a chatbot?
● Where are they being used?
● What can they do?
● Growing ecosystem
● How to build one
THE CHATBOT ERA BEGINS
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3. WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

4. Natural
Conversation
A.I. IS THE NEW U.I.
Typing Clicking Touch Gestures
Voice
Command
Think
Less Friction
Natural = A.I.
Everything is becoming natural language.

5. LOOK BEYOND THE HYPE
We’ve seen this cycle before.
● Anyone can build a website, but...
● Anyone can build a mobile app, but...
Same goes for chatbots.
Building a chatbot is very easy, but creating one that
is truly useful takes some serious thought and work.
Separate knowledge (database) & logic (model/rules).

6. WHAT IS A CHATBOT?

7. BEEN AROUND FOR A WHILE
I’ve been using chatbots since 2009.
They can be hardcoded or A.I.-powered.
Today, we’ll focus on the latter.

8. SMARTER SOFTWARE
Software that can have a conversation
through spoken or written natural language.
a.k.a. bot, talkbot, chatterbot, conversational agent

9. Natural language text.
AND TAKE YOUR PICK...
Natural language speech.

10. ON PAR WITH HUMANS
August, 2016 — “The researchers reported a word error
rate (WER) of 5.9% …about equal to that of people who
were asked to transcribe the same conversation...”
Note: This is just the ability to identify words.
blogs.microsoft.com/next/2016/10/18/historic-achievement-microsoft-researchers-reach-human-p
arity-conversational-speech-recognition

11. WHERE IS THE A.I.?
In the system’s ability to determine intent from
natural conversational language.
e.g. “Open the door, please.”
Compared to requiring specific words.
e.g. “open sesame”
Note: A.I. is only one-way

12. OR ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION...
Run a search on google.com…
“Show me a list of dog breeds — except beagles.”
Today, google.com will show you a bunch of beagles.
Conversely, a system with more advanced natural
language capabilities would understand the “except
beagles” statement and filter results accordingly.

13. The new ‘app’ platform.
EXPLOSION OF PLATFORMS
Google Home Amazon Echo Facebook Messenger Apple Siri
Even Alibaba is
jumping on the
bandwagon

14. WHERE ARE THEY BEING USED?

15. EXAMPLES IN USE TODAY
● Nike (Facebook Messenger)
● Kia Niro (Facebook Messenger)
● North Face Personal Shopper (web)
● Sephora (Kik)
● H&M (Kik)
● Rhizabot (web, personal assistant)
● Domino’s Pizza (everywhere)
● PayPal (Slack)
● Kayak (Slack)
● Westworld Aeden (web)
● Kim Kardashian Bot (Bottr)
Aggregator: chatbottle.co
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the_bots_landscape.pagedemo.co

16. Tay had a mimic
function that was
exploited by attackers.
A similar bot in China
(Xiaoice) has been very
successful.
AMPLIFYING OUR GOOD & BAD
theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist

17. WHAT CAN THEY DO?

18. RISE OF THE CONVERSATIONAL
U.I.
Sorry websites....
Conversation will
replace a large chunk
of what we use
websites for today.
youtu.be/eBo5Xa61FAo?t=1m8s

19. A good illustration of how
quickly these technologies
will integrate into our daily
lives.
ON A PATH TO UBIQUITY
youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk

20. CREATE A CUSTOM PERSONALITY
Just as we use graphical
design today to create
distinction, chatbots will
be defined by their
personalities.
nytimes.com/2017/04/03/business/media/its-not-their-pop-idol-but-a-bot-fans-cheer-anyway.html

21. CREATE A CUSTOM VOICE
lyrebird.ai/demo

22. CREATE A LIP SYNC’ED VIDEO
Who needs actors?
youtube.com/watch?v=MVBe6_o4cMI
sciencealert.com/new-ai-powered-lip-sync-tech-can-put-any-words-in-your-mouth

23. THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A SEC...
Chatbots can mimic personalities, and
We can copy anyone’s voice, plus
We can create a video that lip syncs anything.
We are quickly moving into a world where you could
be having a conversation with your mother on the
phone — and not even realize that you’re speaking
with a (voice-enabled) chatbot.

24. A GROWING ECOSYSTEM

25. PICK YOUR STARTING POINT
A.I. M
aturity
No training data required!
Purpose-Built Platform, Their Training Data
Commercial Platform, Their Training Data
Commercial Platform, Your Training Data
In-House Platform, Your Training Data

26. CHATBOT BUILDERS
● Chattypeople
● MEOKAY
● Smooch
● Botsify
● Beep Boop
● Chatfuel
● BotKit
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● Octane AI
● Botkit *
● Pandorabots
● Microsoft Bot Framework *
● Wit.ai
● Api.ai
● Semantic Machines

27. MESSAGING SERVICES
● Facebook Messenger
● Telegram
● Slack
● Amazon Alexa
● Google Assistant
● Apple Siri
● Skype
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● WeChat
● Kik
● Twitter
● LINE
● iMessage
● Viber
● HipChat

28. VOICE RECOGNITION APIs
Understanding spoken input.
● Amazon Lex
● Google Cloud Speech API
● IBM Watson Speech-to-Text
● Bing Speech API
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29. SPEECH SYNTHESIS APIs
Spoken output.
● Amazon Poly
● IBM Watson Text-to-Speech
● Ivona
● Bing Speech API
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30. HOW-TO GUIDES
● Building Voice-Enabled Products With Amazon Alexa
● Cognitive Customer Engagement Using IBM Watson
● Harnessing Visual Data Using Google Cloud
● Building a Recommendation Engine Using Microsoft Azure
● Predicting Marketing Campaign Response Using Amazon Machine Learning
● Unleashing A.I.-Powered Conversation With IBM Watson
● Get into the Mind of Your Customer Using Google’s Sentiment Analysis Tools
● Discover Your Customers’ Deepest Feelings Using Microsoft Facial Recognition
● Give Your Products the Power of Speech Using Amazon Polly
● Computers Are Opening Their Eyes — and They’re Already Better at Seeing Than We Are
● How to Predict When You’re Going to Lose a Subscriber
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31. HOW TO BUILD ONE

32. IBM WATSON EXAMPLES
Simple
● text-bot.mybluemix.net
Can speak and be spoken to
● conversation-demo.mybluemix.net
● 10xnation.com/blog/conversational-interface-ibm-watson
Can find answers in external content
● conversation-with-discovery-within-ui.mybluemix.net

33. MICROSOFT DEMO
The Bot Framework
● 10xnation.com/blog/how-to-build-a-chatbot-using-mi
crosofts-bot-framework

34. UNLEASH YOUR BUSINESS
EMBRACE EXPONENTIAL
10xnation.com