chatbots
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Facebook fights Messenger spam with Asimov’s three rules of bots
The big risk of Facebook launching the Messenger platform was that spammy bots could drown out your friends. Now Facebook is formalizing rules to prevent that because before, there were none. Messenger API experiences may only respond to users who initiate conversations. They can only reply within 24 hours, and once more after that for reengagement. Subscription Messaging that requires an… Read More
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Why the top 5 tech companies are dead set on AI
At nearly every major technology event for the past five years we’ve been given at least one “wow” moment — when one of the big players would unveil some sort of product or service that no one had ever seen before. The bar was set high for innovation, because there were wide-open spaces to be filled. Technology was revolutionary, not evolutionary. But so far in 2016… Read More
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Never leave Slack with message button bots for using Kayak, Trello, and more
Now you can approve expenses, assign deadlines, check flights, and interact with other enterprise tools from inside Slack with its new Message Buttons. Slack is vying to become your always-open portal to work with the biggest update to its API since its December launch. For example, just type “/kayak flights from NYC to BOS on 6/23” and you’ll get shown flight options with… Read More
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Dango mind-melds with emoji using deep learning and suggests them while you type
Dango is an emoji suggestion chatbot — wait, where are you going? Stay with me, this is actually pretty cool.
Okay, so Dango is one of those virtual assistants that lives in your chat apps, and this one is based on a neural network that has been trained with millions of examples to understand what emoji mean. So not only can it suggest an appropriate one, but it can translate entire… Read More
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It might be time to stop looking for the WeChat of the West
I was recently in China, which meant I was living on WeChat. All my meetings were arranged through the app. I authenticated my identity for free Wi-Fi at shopping malls with WeChat. I checked in for a flight by scanning a QR code through WeChat. I watched office workers in Shenzhen pay for their lunches with WeChat. On the subway, most people were chatting with friends on… you know what… Read More
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Penny raises $1.2M in seed funding for its personal finance bot
Penny, a personal finance bot we reviewed last fall, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Social Capital. As a refresher, the app offers a chat-based interface that offers advice tailored to your personal finances. This advice includes things like how much you spend on food each week, how this month’s spending compares to last month’s and even income graphs. One unique… Read More
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3Dprintler lets you order a 3D print via chatbot
Who do you call if you want to 3D print something? Step forward 3Dprintler, a startup that has made a search engine for locating 3D printing services in your area. The team was chosen as the wildcard company from Startup Alley to present onstage in the 2016 Battlefield here at TechCrunch Disrupt New York. Read More
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Facebook says 10K+ developers are building chatbots, analytics are coming
Despite gripes about the usefulness of Facebook chatbots, “tens of thousands” of developers are building them, Messenger’s head of product Stan Chudnovsky revealed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY. And, 5,000 Shopify merchants are now distributing order confirmations and shipping alerts via Messenger, showing e-commerce companies are eager to reach the app’s nearly… Read More
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The dehumanization of Facebook Messenger
I used to answer every message. Not any more. When Messenger buzzes, now I don’t know if it will be a friend or a bot. Every chime forces me to do a little Turing test in my head. Was I expecting to be pinged by a pal? Or is it 8:11pm again and TechCrunch’s bot is sending me another daily digest. Read More
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Facebook Alive
“You never slow down, you never grow old.” Tom Petty isn’t playing the F8 after-party, but his song encapsulates the point of Facebook’s conference — a social network won’t go extinct if it’s reactive, personalized, and urgent. Everything launched today is designed to eschew the generic. To wrap around the user and bend to their whims to create a… Read More
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