chatbotting away

A couple of years ago my colleagues Mark Bolas, Evan Suma, and I were working on a project for the Office of Naval Research looking at the “workplace of 2025.” One of the concepts we explored was “vamping” – essentially a variation on what is being talked about now by Google and Facebook (and others). Our idea was that your virtual assistant could attend a meeting, and if it was asked a question, it would answer (from a predetermined set of responses), and if it didn’t know the answer, it would contact you (via sms or voice) and ask you – then respond. Still a long way from prime-time, but the future isn’t slowing down any time soon.