Why Microsoft Tay.Ai and Facebook chatbots are is future of Fast food and online shopping

Chatbots are now all the rage in Mobile Social Media these days.

Not surprising to me as I’d predicted this phenomenon some time and it may be coming soon if Google has their way as predicted in my blog article entitled “How Google and GSMA RCS on Telcos means Ad Chatbots to unseat WhatsApp dominance”. 

From March 2, 2016

Microsoft is no exception and is now testing out their latest chatbot, Tay.ai as reported in the article “Microsoft's AI bot wants to chat with all you young adults”, published March 23, 2016 by Mary Jo Foley, CNET News. 

As of writing this, the chatbot has been shut down as online users taught the chatbot conspiracy theories, racist concepts and yes swear words, forcing Microsoft to shut it down as reported in the article “Microsoft chatbot is taught to swear on Twitter”, published 24 March 2016 by By Jane Wakefield, BBC News.

The chatbot is aimed primarily at 18-y-o to 24-y-o in the US as they do most of the random purchases for stuff online. Tay is a lot like a real person and you can be her friend and share information with her mainly:

1.      Nickname

2.      Gender

3.      Favorite food

4.      Zip code

5.      Relationship status

Luckily, users can delete this at their behest, Tay is also super social, having several social media accounts on twitter, Snapchat, Kik and GroupMe.

Her Twitter account, by the way is @TayandYou and so far she's pretty tame albeit she still needs to get the hang of talking like a teenager.

According to Tay.ai About page, Microsoft dipped into random and anonymous Twitter data and then used comedians in tandem with the AI to develope her personality.

So why is Microsoft building a Bot and they don't even have their own Social Network?

Microsoft Tay.Ai - Why the future of Fast food and online shopping is chatbots

The idea I suspect is that Tay.ai will be made open source for developers to integrate into their Social Media messaging platforms.

This will occur in much the same way that Kik is using Blynk to talk to teenagers as noted in my blog article entitled “Kik buys Blynk - Why chatbots are the future of music and shopping”. 

Facebook already has plans to include chatbots to deliver business Ads and possibly play chess with you as predicted in my blog article entitled “How FB Messenger Ads means Chess playing Chatbots with Fast Food Coupons”. 

Still, I suspect the Facebook's basketball bot, if they plan to make it into a bot, as noted in the article “How to play Facebook Messenger's secret basketball game”, published 19 March 2016 by Jason Cipriani, CNET News will be a lot more popular and will get kids to order more KFC and pizza.

Generation Z already socialized to love Bots - Cool bot that gives out pizza coupons is ok

Microsoft known that teenagers aka Generation Z, aren't too bothered by the data sharing so long as they can get free KFC and Pizza coupons in exchange.

After all, Social Media already affords them free calling via such platforms such as WhatsApp with video calling around the corner as predicted in my blog article entitled “How WhatsApp Video Calling in 2016 is Apple's FaceTime, Microsoft's Skype and Google Hangouts competition”.

So what to worry about if you sharing with a cool bot program that gives out KFC and pizza coupons, especially as they're already being socialized to see robots as friendly. In fact, most teenagers won’t feel surprised to see robot delivery like Domino's DRU as described in my blog article entitled “How Marathon Robotics Dominoes Robotic Unit will replace Pizza Delivery in New Zealand”.   

By the time bots become mainstream, most Generation Z would have already being socialized to accept robots as friendly, even if they'll take away their future jobs. for now, she'll need some more sensitization to the “system” before she can be let out into the wild to interact with regular humans.

Here’s the link:

Tay.ai About page

@TayandYou Twitter handle: @TayandYou