Software that talks to people – Südwestpresse

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The Silicon Valley is in chatbot fever. Software that can converse with people should help you book travel or to take over the customer service. Danger lurks by online criminals

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2016 should be the year in which we start our machines with network to entertain. At every turn in the Internet industry Chatbots be developed. These are programs that are able to lead a conversation about with people, for example, messaging platforms. An example would bots supporting customer at a hotel booking to room.

A few weeks ago demonstrated Microsoft as a hotel helper for business and announced a chatbot platform that such programs for a variety of situations to bring in diverse communications services. On Tuesday, the next step of Facebook is expected: The world’s largest online network wants according to media reports Chatbots by which you can order goods or services, become the focus of its developer conference “F8″

Facebook announced. that his short message service Messenger together with around 900 million users to earn money as a platform for companies to communicate with their clients. For over half a year experimenting Facebook with the personal assistant “M”, a sort of concierge in Messenger. “It starts with the fact that many things are done by people and only a few from the computer, and gives step by step to the machine,” says Messenger product manager Stan Chudnovsky the procedure. “If inquiries can be answered satisfactorily by the machine, it takes over this task from that point.” Facebook did not have information on how much work of man is made invisible behind “M” for users. But the machine’m definitely progress, he says.

The programmer and web mastermind Chris Messina, who is, among other things as the inventor of hashtags in Twitter, said in 2016 already the year of “conversational commerce” – ie transactions that are concluded via communication. Facebook Manager Chudnovsky sees this as a natural way for human behavior: “Everything in life starts with a conversation, whether you buy things or reserved table in a restaurant.” The idea is that a dialogue in Messenger can replace an app.

At the same time messaging services will need new user interfaces if they should first be used for all sorts of everyday tasks. It is conceivable starting reorder the dialogues of place, time or habits of the user.

IT security experts see again quite different problems. The new channel of direct interaction with the user offer “great potential” for online criminals, says about Candid Wüest from security software specialist Symantec. If something like today users will be contacted by an alleged airline with additional information about a flight with spam on a large scale, the likelihood is great that in the extent some people are, who feel addressed and trust the wrong Bot. “Then calls they eventually on to sign up – and the account is hijacked.” Wüest provides the operators of short message services in the duty to ensure the safety of users.