#microsoft’s newest chatbot lives on Kik

Tech

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…

Continue reading…

Comments