#microsoft’s newest chatbot lives on Kik
December 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Months after Microsoft’s disastrous Tay bot launch on Twitter, the company is giving chatbots another go. This time, it’s testing a bot on Kik. The bot, which was first spotted by Twitter user Tom Hounsell and later written up by MSPoweruser, is called Zo and is essentially an English-language version of Microsoft’s Chinese bot, Xiaoice. Like that bot, Zo attempts conversation with users.
Zo really wants to come off as normal. It first “breaks the ice” by posing a question. Zo asked me whether I prefer summer or winter, which is a totally normal conversation starter.
So far, Zo isn’t much of a conversationalist, and our chat eventually made zero sense. Feel free to enjoy:
Kik is an odd choice for…