‘Cortana, Open Alexa,’ Amazon Says. And Microsoft Agrees.

Voice is a whole new paradigm, so is the way Voice AI powerhouses are approaching its go-to-market. This is a glimpse into how Bezos and Nadella see the future of the roll of this tech in people’s lives, and it’s, well, surprisingly human. They way they see it, “over time people would turn to different digital assistants [...] the same way they turn to one friend for advice about hiking and another for restaurant recommendations.” 

The next (obvious) Facebook Messenger move – Chatbots Magazine

Spoiler Alert: Web Widget. This author predicts that the next phase in Messenger bot roll out is the ability for businesses to embed Messenger directly into owned websites. Our take? This is cold war regarding who owns the support channel! And the way for Facebook to win here is that they provide more data out of the box, however for non-logged in users it would be very painful to login

Facebook and Microsoft Introduce New Open Ecosystem for Interchangeable AI Frameworks

Apparently collaboration between tech powerhouses is a theme this fall! You wouldn't think you'd find Microsoft and Facebook collaborating on interoperability. Perhaps to try to beat Google's TensorFlow. This is not very close to "our AI", but still a significant event. 

The Story Of Getting Acquired at Age 14

Ok, this story is from a few weeks ago, but still worth mentioning because of what it indicates about what’ valuable about bots. This is the story of the acquisition of Christopher Bot--a bot that helps students keep track of their homework--that now has been acquired by another Ed Tech company looking to expand its existing product line that helps students achieve their education goals via chat.  This bot wasn’t *technically* difficult to make, but it’s the training that’s valuable--the domain expertise. Something to keep in mind for other folks looking for a buyout in the Bot-o-sphere. There is value in the experience you’re creating that that’s only the result of best-in-class training.