RASA NLU gives developers an open source solution for natural language processing

Another interesting ripple in the burgeoning NLP/NLU space--the fact that it’s free isn’t news (of course Wit.AI is and API.ai to an extent). The exciting part here is that it’s not tied to a data gobbling behemoth, making it at the very least unique, and potentially the most appealing option for certain larger companies (we have a feeling Walmart doesn’t want to share their data with a potential competitor). Sucks for the NLP guys who are still trying to charge, though :/

Start a Conversation From Your Facebook Ad

Push ads to Messenger are now officially out of beta! Will be interesting to see how bots that want to send messages out of the 24h window will try to argue why that thing they are pushing shouldn't be considered a “promotion.” Either way, this is quite masterful from Facebook--such a good way to monetize bots. 🤑

Building Jarvis

Ok, not to spend too much time on Facebook, but how can we not talk about this? You gotta hand it to the guy. It’s pretty cool... until you watch that uncomfortably robotic video and you start thinking about the data implications and the whole thing feels just a tiny bit... insidious. But what a cool hobby! Also, why is the next step an Android app?

Rocket AI: 2016’s Most Notorious AI Launch and the Problem with AI Hype

Well this was just kind of funny. Big question here is, how can we, as a bot community, make sure that the hype doesn’t swallow us whole? Also, can we all get back to work now?

British Airways Bot

Now don’t get too excited, this isn’t Customer Service. It’s lead gen. But you’ve gotta start somewhere. More emojis, please!

World Surf League Bot

Fun example of the “botification of content”.  Wish they had pushed it further--maybe guide the user down a path based on their surf-knowledge (Am I a beginner? Fangirl/boy? Kelly Slater?) and personalized the journey based on that. Also would be cool if it had more utility--wave reports etc. 🌊

BarkBox Twitter Bot

The first ever “Dog Bot” on Twitter, this is a great example of a bot *definitely* not acting like a “hooman” while still maintaining a ton of personality (full disclosure: we built this one with Zendesk & Twitter) 

CES Panel: Women in AI

Heading to CES? Come see Clara de Soto, member of the Reply.ai founding team, speak on a panel with top innovators from Johnson & Johnson, ESPN, Reply.ai, R/GA and more, as they explore the intersection of messaging, AI, bots and machine learning.