ChatBots For Pot

An interesting look at a the role of chatbots in a budding (ha) industry . Cool to see the different approaches, from more straightforward ones that simply streamline the delivery process for dispensaries, to others that legitimize and make accessible otherwise taboo or fragmented data. Fascinating to see the potential acceleration caused by the intersection of new tech with a new industry. We’re just sad no one’s made claimed the name “Pot Bot” yet *runs to Godaddy*

Cisco acquires conversational AI startup MindMeld for $125 million

Another exciting acquisition in AI! Cisco makes a move towards continuing to strengthen its software game, absorbing the MindMeld team into it’s new “Cognitive Collaboration” team. Considering how many times MindMeld pivoted, this is a clear indicator of just how valuable Machine Learning tech is. 

Introducing the New Yorker Poetry Bot

It’s no secret how much disdain we harbor for RSS-feed chatbots, largely adopted early on by publishers. If you’ve been a subscriber for a while, you know how lazy we find this use case. Like c’mon guys. Is that really the best you can do? That’s why we wanted to share a big ol’ hats off to The New Yorker who has finally dug a little deeper. Their poetry bot is exactly what we’ve been saying is the *real* opportunity for publishers--to leverage their curatorial voice to provide a service. We’d love more poetry in our lives, but it’s hard to know where to start. Wouldn’t it be great if you could ask an expert in all things cultural to show you the way? And that’s exactly what The New Yorker has accomplished here. We know it’s hard to cross church & state/ editorial & marketing lines to pull something like this off--bravo.

Bing now serves up bots from Facebook Messenger, Slack, and other chat apps

Another leap for bot discoverability. While Bing isn’t our favorite (is it anyone’s?) search engine, we admire this effort on Microsoft’s part to answer the cry of bot devs everywhere for better ways to get their bots noticed. Yay!

Can I Eat This Bot for Messenger, Twitter and Alexa

A fun side project we started after one of Reply’s team members found out she was pregnant. In honor of Mother’s Day, this bot helps answer the question on every mom-to-be’s mom--can I eat this? Because we are far from medical professionals, we sourced content from Mayo Clinic, FDA, http://FoodSafety.gov  American Pregnancy, BabyCenter, Livestrong, & CDC, this bot is available on Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and soon Alexa (Reply makes it easy to launch cross platform).

CHATBOT SUMMIT | Berlin, June 26th | Home of the Chatbot Revolution

In Berlin June 26th? Don't miss this awesome meeting of the bot-minds. I'll be there and speaking on a panel!