A bot is a
computer program which is specifically designed to work automatically
without human intervention. The main purpose of the bot is to collect
information on the web or execute repetitive jobs. The combination of
machine learning and natural language processing makes bot a powerful
tool for customers. These new generation tools can communicate with
customers in powerful and new ways at reduced efforts, time and cost.
There are two sides of the bot as similar for every technology. The
Positive side of a boat is capable of setting up an alarm, hail a taxi,
place the food order, buy movie tickets, track your daily fitness
progress, fix an appointment with the doctor, pay your monthly household
bills etc. Chatbots is one of the bots which can hold a discussion with
you to complete a particular task.
The
Negative side of a bot is as it can act as self-propagating malware
which can infect machines connected over the network. Such bots are
called as a malicious bot which can gather passwords, capture
keystrokes, leak financial information, relay spam, and exploit the
vulnerabilities of the system.
Bots are everywhere in technology.
The key technologies which drive the use of bots among masses are:
1. An inclination of the user toward mobile message applications.
2. Involvement of artificial intelligence and natural language processing in the day to day life.
3. Integration of sensors in gadgets and wearable
4. Provision of seamless payment technology into devices through third-party APIs.
5. Digitization and advancement in data science and analytics.
Nowadays
Artificial intelligence-based bots are widely used by many
organizations to cater to sales, services to the customer. Some popular
examples of bots are Amazon Echo, Slack, Assistant from Google and
Apple’s Siri.
Amazon Echo
Amazon
Echo is a hardware device (Addressed by Alexa) with an integration of
machine learning and natural language processing application whose basic
purpose is
-To play music on customers command,
-Making informational queries to solve a particular task,
-Monitor and control the home devices.
Alexa
can place your order on dominoes and can track the progress of
delivery. The only thing you have to command Alexa is “Open McDonalds
and order my favourite pizza” and pizza will be delivered at your
doorstep without any calling and navigation on the web.
Slack
Slack
is mainly used for communications within organizations. It has many
user created bots (which are applications) which can help a user in
setting up meetings, sharing docs, integrate with other applications
like To-Do, GitHub, Google Calendar, etc. Slack also provides its own
help bot(@slackbot) which sends you the intermittent helpful message.
Like
for “ToDo” bot, you can use an apps shortcut like “/todo” followed by
instructions to set up a to-do task for any user and set end date etc.
This will get passed to the specified user and keep reminding him till
the task is marked done by that user.
Assistant from Google
Assistant
is an application of Google with AI digital assistant. You can say “Ok
Google” and initiate Assistant on Android OS (Phone or TV). It’s a
voice-assisted AI bot which response as per your voice command. You can
search for content on the internet, check the weather, book an
appointment, call a contact, set alarm, book a meeting, navigate to a
location with Maps etc.
Apple’s Siri
Apple
introduced Siri voice assistant to enhance its user interface. Siri is
capable of doing various tasks for you like checking the weather,
playing your favourite TV channel, and other relevant tasks.
Dr. M.A.Thalor
Associate Professor
Computer Engineering
