Post photo: Chatbot | © Alexandra Koch on Pixabay
Back in the 1980s, we students were encouraged by our university to regularly call and talk to one of the first chatbots at an American university. At some point my own interest was too low and, at least for me, the whole project fell apart again.
When I was creating one of my first websites in the noughties, I became aware of a software that was brand new at the time and shortly afterwards I had my own chatbot on the website. The problem was that the installation simply wasn't done; from then on I had to constantly feed one and later additional databases. But I had a state of the art chatbot that, with its lifelike avatar, would leave the chatbots known today far behind. In the final expansion stage and in memory of my student days, I gave the chatbot the ability to speak (English and German), which resulted in additional databases.
I was actually very happy with my toys, but I no longer had any time to play with them myself and certainly no longer to feed the entire databases, which was becoming more and more complex every day. That's why I said goodbye to my chatbot again - and the "nice lady" disappeared from my websites again.
In the years that followed, I tried again and again with the now diverse and different chatbot offerings, only to quickly realize again that I couldn't manage to run one in time.
But now that Heilbronn has mutated into the “AI capital of the world” and the first Heilbronn clubs are already advertising with their own AI chatbots on their websites, I just have to go along with it. That's why I first installed a normal chatbot and took a look at how much effort the whole thing requires these days. Then I look at whether this can be linked to artificial intelligence - whatever that may be - and whether this is actually the necessary tool to be able to operate such a chatbot economically.
In any case, my urge to play has been awakened again, and my readers can follow the successes and failures in real time here on the blog.
Addendum 2.12.2023
It was done again faster than expected with the chatbot. Artificial intelligence had done more work than traditional chatbots had ever done before; at least at the beginning of this endeavor. That's why I pulled the emergency brake and allowed myself a few free hours during Advent.
