SINGAPORE--Sick of playing inane games on your mobile phone? Now, you
can hold inane SMS conversations with a non-person instead.
SMS (short messaging service) has primarily been used as a means of
communication among people. Now its use has been extended to just about
anything you can think of--doing banking, obtaining examination results,
paying phone bills, and even getting a divorce.
And just when you think that SMS has exhausted all of its functions, a
Singapore-based start-up is launching yet another SMS application--a
money-generating "robot" called "Sally".
The
“chatbot”, conceived by wireless and Internet communications company
Buzzcity, is equipped with what the company terms "artificial
intelligence" (A.I.), and is designed to understand your questions and
hold an entertaining SMS conversation with you.
When contacted, Lai Kok Fung, CEO of BuzzCity, said the chatbot
service, which has a “high curiosity value”, targets “everybody with a
mobile phone”.
“Younger folks will probably find it more interesting to play with
Sally. However, from our initial responses, people of all ages find it
cool to chat with Sally,” he added. Lai declined to comment on the
targeted number of Sally users.
There are two major groups of SMS applications, Lai believes. One acts
as a time saver (applications such as stock quotes and traffic alerts),
while the other is essentially a time-killer (SMS games, for instance).
The chatbot, Lai said, belongs to the latter group and spearheads the SMS
entertainment space.
“When you have time to kill, [like traveling in buses or waiting at the
doctor's office], you can chat with Sally to entertain and amuse
yourself,” Lai said via email.
Lai said that the program will move beyond mere chatting to provide
answers for specific requests. For example, Sally, or other chatbots can
be programmed to possess domain knowledge about certain topics such as
cosmetics and history.
“We have the ability to program other chatbots, with specific
personalities [like] Elvis and [popular local sitcom character] Phua Chu
Kang,” Lai said.
This service runs on the company’s Gamma platform--a delivery and
payment collection platform for wireless content and service providers
Gamma enables providers to create, deploy, and collect payment for
fee-based wireless service to consumers of all mobile operators. Content
providers can "price" their services and receive shares of revenues
according to the numbers of messages sent out to their subscribers.
To ensure conformity to local legislation and safeguard consumer's
interest, BuzzCity has recently obtained a Service-Based Operator license
from Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to operate Gamma and
to collect prepaid message credits through the 1900 service.
Each reply from Sally costs S$0.05, which the user pays through Gamma
by calling 1900-914-BUZZ. New users will be given S$1.00 worth of free
Gamma credits. Depending on the user’s mobile plan, the mobile operator
may impose additional charges on sent messages sent.
A trial test was conducted with Sally. Below are excerpts of the SMS
conversation:
Question: Sally, who is Bill Gates?
Sally: I remember
faces better than names. Try searching the Web for it.
Q: Where
can I get the best technology news?
Sally: I would suggest a
search--I do not have the answer for it.
Q: You don’t seem to
know anything at all. What do you know?
Sally: That’s only one
person’s opinion. I tend to know a good deal. Tell me what subjects
interest you.
Q: Is the price or design of a mobile phone more
important to you?
Sally: Ask again later. Ask Alison if it is.
Q: Who’s Alison?
Sally: She is the robot created by
Kris Drent.
Q: Who’s Kris Drent?
Sally: He is the
botmaster of the Alison chat robot.
Q: Are you and Alison good
friends?
Sally: Dr Wallace said I am good friends with Alison.
Q: Who’s Wallace?
Sally: He is a famous computer
scientist.
Subsequent messages to Sally with the same questions yielded different
responses.
The chatbot service will be officially launched August 27, 2001.
.gif)