Imagine that you are calling the phone line of a major
business. More often than not, you will
encounter an interactive voice responder. Your experience with the voice responder may
be a familiar one—a recording guides you throughout a menu and slowly reads out
each option. You press the button
corresponding to the desired option, and the recording reads out the next menu,
ad infinitum. Many people find this process to be slow and
tedious. A lot of this perceived tedium
comes from the fact that such menus are counter-intuitive to natural human
communication; it is in our nature to communicate specific ideas in short,
easily-understandable phrases.
In recent years, however, computer scientists have been
looking into systems that can recognize and respond to natural human speech,
albeit to a limited extent. Such a
system would be a product of artificial intelligence, a branch of computer
science that studies how machines can process and respond to input. Some current computer programs that recognize
human language include chatterbots, software that simulates a conversation with
a user, primarily for entertainment purposes.
One of the most popular chatterbots is Cleverbot, who constantly
develops speech mannerisms from interacting with humans[1]. Some broadcasters on websites such as Youtube
record themselves interacting with Cleverbot and other similar bots, often to humorous
effect[2].
Using chatterbots for professional use is still limited,
however. Some chatterbot technologies
such as SitePal[3] and AlterEgos[4] have been made for use by businesses, but they
are rarely seen on other websites.
Perhaps good website layout can make such chatterbots unnecessary. Still, possibly in the future, when services
become used by more people and technical support staffs become overworked, artificial
intelligence software will be able to supplement human assistance.
