Practical AI on the Google Cloud Platform

Chapter 5. Chatbots and Conversational AI

Understanding language and text, the semantics, subjects, and even syntax, is powerful. Ultimately our goal has always been to create a natural language interface between humans and machines. To do that, our NLP system needs to not only understand text, but also be able to generate new responses as well. The common term we use for such interfaces now is chatbot or conversational AI.

You have likely already interfaced with chatbots many times in your life. Chatbots come in all forms, from the powerful assistants we see in Siri and Alexa to the common support chatbots you may see on a product website. In most cases they provide a more natural interface to a computing device, like your phone. However, conversational AI may play a part in future human companionship.

Conversational AI is a form of chatbot that allows for free-flowing speech and is not goal oriented. Goal-oriented chatbots like Siri and Alexa are task-specific; they respond to individual tasks or goals. Conversational bots are still very much in their infancy, but that is expected to change in the near future.

Note

A great example of one possible future conversational AI is featured in the 2013 movie Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams. In the movie, the protagonist falls in love with the AI, only to realize the AI is incapable of falling in love with him.

In this chapter we look at what role chatbots have played in interfacing with computers. We look at the history ...