Do AI Characters Listen?

By admin | Published: September 1, 2009

Listening is required for a truly interactive conversational exchange to take place.

Yes, AI characters “listen,” in order to understand the End User’s side of the exchange and respond with improvisational/contextual dialogue, or pre-scripted story/character dialogue (or, a combination thereof).

But, how is the End User’s part of the conversation passed along to Brands and Clients to understand and makes sense of the conversation for their own needs?

Through the inclusion of “memory fields” our AI characters achieve two key functions: (a) they relate to each Individual on a personal basis and (b) they provide analytics that breakdown the User’s side of the conversation and engagement. The analytics provide deep insight, not just in terms of engagement, but, in terms of preferences at a detail level not offered through most platforms.

We think about ‘conversational pre-roll” advertising units and other applications where this format becomes valuable for the Brands, as well as the End Users, who want to express themselves and be part of the conversation, because they feel they are being listened to.

1 September 2009

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Conversational Apps — Bringing Conversation back to the Phone

By admin | Published: August 28, 2009

Mobile phones were originally http://tinyurl.com/lfhlwy solely for conversation.

Then came “smart phones,” which really meant they could be used for something other than conversation.

contentAI studios is developing  mobile solutions for interactive conversations, with a  focus on
entertainment/advertising/marketing, customer service and relations and eLearning products and solutions.

We’re bringing “conversation” back to mobile phones through the development of “conversational apps” that fulfill the original function of a phone, with a twist…facilitating engaging conversation instantly between End Users and AI characters/representatives/experts, with tie-ins to extended content.

Using a phone for conversation?

How natural is that?

28 August 2009


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Advertising Character Icons, Authenticity, Social Media – Interactive Conversation

By admin | Published: August 21, 2009

It’s been an interesting week where we’ve seen trending topics in our discussions with partners and clients that all revolve around the issues of authenticity, social media, transparency, “human touch” with a sidebar about advertising character icons in social media spaces.

The down and dirty: Are humans the only characters allowed in social media spaces?

Even then, can an individual’s [human] content be outsourced? What’s authentic and what’s transparent? Can “artificially intelligent characters” fit into the mix?

Our take is that social media platforms are sought after turf for Brands to connect on a more personal level with their audience/customer. And, this is an evolving space and new and diversified formats will all be accepted, provided the Content resonates and provides value (from utilitarian to entertainment) to the End User — “real” or “AI.” We accept that there are individuals who are focused on their “Personal Brand” in social media spaces and they appear less than enthused to compete with AI characters; this raises other issues about how a Personal Brand is (often) a fictional representation of a person, but we won’t go there right now…

In the middle of this we got to thinking about the iconic advertising fictional characters that have worked so successfully for Brands over the years — Michelin Man, Pillsbury Doughboy, Mr. Clean, and on and on…These “characters” are immune from the dictate of human conversation, since, well, they aren’t human to begin with. What a perfect opportunity for iconic fictional characters to reach out and engage in conversation, customer relations/service and engaging campaigns through the interactive writing and artificial intelligence platforms we provide at contentAI studios

Here’s a great list of iconic “characters” — wouldn’t it be great to chat with them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_advertising_characters

21 August 2009

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Customer Service — “If I could only clone her/him”

By admin | Published: August 12, 2009

You have a brilliant Customer Service employee or Brand representative and you find yourself saying to yourself, “if I could only clone him/her?” Or you have an exceptional Team, who together, create a unified Voice, and you want that consistent quality delivered to all of your Customers, all of the time?

We can do this.

We can create an AI character for you that is specifically based off of that person or team you’ve wanted to clone.

Our “content shaping” with Artificial Intelligence requires the “human touch” both in terms of writing, tone and information — collectively, the “substance.”   We can create AI “characters” that incorporate the best qualities of a “real” person (or Team), and provide that same experience to all Customers.

We add the perk of “memory fields” so that our “character” relates to each Individual customer on a personal and intimate level.  They can be set to remember each User’s name and even preferences.

So, next time you’re thinking, “if I could only clone…” — Well, get in touch with us.

12 August 2009

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AI Twitter Character – Unintended Viral Kick

By admin | Published: August 10, 2009

It was a bit surprising to see how our Beta Twitter AI Character has made it into what seems like the Sacramento Bee’s Twitter stream for “Emergency Room” Tweets:

saruhAI_sacbee_ER_01

10 August 2009

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Twitter Character Launch – 50-75% Unscripted Conversation

By admin | Published: August 7, 2009

AI Conversation:

50% is easy, it’s User Generated.

On average, a “character/story” will be 25%  scripted to “shape” the conversational experience.

The balance of 25% is AI-powered and unscripted.

Therefore, 50-75% of a simply structured Twitter Conversation will be unscripted between the AI engine and User Content.

In testing and developing structures for AI Interactive Conversations within Twitter, we decided to test a fairly simple structure, where we “push” storyline at pre-determined intervals, though less structured (both random and intuitive) features can be integrated readily.

We think of this as a “conversational JibJab-ish” experiment toward engaging Users.  We see a lot of “branded conversational” Content on the horizon.   We think this can be an entertaining “experiential ad unit” that Users will look forward to.  How often do you get a personalized @ reply within :90 seconds?

Launching Character #1 on TWITTER — because we missed her “real” Tweets so much…

contentAI studios is pleased to present:

@saruhAI (send “her” an @saruhAI message and she will reply!)

Enjoy.

7 August 2009

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Interactive Writing for AI Conversational Content

By admin | Published: August 6, 2009

Taking a break from the tech side of life, it’s important to note that half of our time and energy is dedicated to creating new interactive writing formats that “shape” the User’s experience within an AI-based conversation.

The closest analogy to this is to how early Altman films were Directed.  We know the beginning and end (and, certain points in the middle), but, the path actually taken by the User evolves during the process.  In the case of interactive conversation, that path is a combination of User Generated input as well as the “content shaping” or “overlay” structures that are determined in the Authoring process.

Beginning, middle and end of the day: Great writing matters.

For writers, it’s a fascinating space to explore.  How do you allow and encourage the User to improvise while also tweaking them to get them to the story points you want them to hit?    Writers do need to understand the breadth of the technology platform to avail of all of the bells/whistles it offers — new features such as “relative emotion detection” that can trigger conversation be moved in a different direction  are all extremely valuable to creating the best User Experience and add new territory for Writers to explore.   Incorporating “short term memory” fields for each individual Users also create a more personal experience for the conversation to unfold – Writers can create characters who are speaking to individuals, not the undefined “masses.”

@contentAI we work with Writers from different disciplines to bring them into the interactive writing process for this platform — that’s part of the pleasure of Producing AI Content.

6 August 2009

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contentAI Twitter Ad Format Evolves – TinyURLS and more….

By admin | Published: July 31, 2009

Conversational Twitter Ad Experiences. . .

There’s a lot of talk about Twitter ad-units these days. And, we’re seeing the obvious attempts to migrate ad formats from other mediums to the micro-blogging space — generally attempts to fit one model into another medium fail or are met with a high degree of End User dissatisfaction.

Failing a better term, we think our Conversational AI ad-units for Twitter are “organic” with the End User experience — they don’t disrupt or clutter — they encourage engagement and conversation.

contentAI_screen_wiki-coupon

1.  We can “push” messages outside of conversation, including TwitPic image links (digital coupons)

2.  Above, we are pulling data from Wikipedia, in real-time, and also (in real-time) delivering a Twitter friendly TinyURL link (Response time above is :01 minute)

3.  For Brands, we can source any specific web data for their AI characters and campaigns

4.  The inclusion of “conversational” dialogue completes the circle and is distinctive in the Twitter User experience

5.  Important to bring up other features:  AI character “remembers” individual Follower memories based on predefined fields (i.e. “name” “likes” etc.), and backend engagement metrics include tracking for market research and polling.

/////

We believe this is the most organic, engaging and highest value for the End User ad format/brand engagement unit within Twitter. We’ll be opening up other interactive entertainment formats within Twitter soon too.

31 July 2009

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Conversation is Content

By admin | Published: July 24, 2009

Conversation is Content.

That has become the “elevator pitch” opener for us.  We’re in the “conversational content” business.

We create new ad formats based on conversation.  We can provide eLearning tools through conversation.  We engage users through conversation and 50% of the “content” is User Generated (otherwise our AI Characters are just talking to themselves; which, actually occurred yesterday during a re-boot, as our Twitter Character thought “she” should respond to the “temporarily unavailable” message on her account — while curious, we cut off her “talking to herself” after a few exchanges).

We’re not the only folks seeing this as an important and emerging space, noting “conversation as content” posts  HERE and HERE.  The background Big Picture is nicely presented HERE, which presents this as a near epoch making shift in human::machine interaction.

It’s a fascinating area to be constructing and facilitating Content, where value is added to all sides and terrific User Experiences are paramount.

24 July 2009

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Interactive AI Conversation in Twitter

By admin | Published: July 16, 2009

As we  were looking into solutions for server based speech-to-text, etc., we realized just how similar the text-based conversations we’re having with our new AI “characters” was to how we communicate on Twitter.

So, of course, we say, “why not?”

We decided to open up the original beta bot “JEENEY” (@jeeneyAI) to converse with Users via Twitter.

It’s a lot of fun.

Unlike most ‘Tweets, this is far more conversational;  Users receive replies, typically in under :90 seconds (sometimes instantly).

While this distribution offering is in Beta, while we determine server specs, etc., we’re only providing private beta invites to hang out with @jeeneyAI — the first conversational AI character to ‘Tweet.  CONTACT US if you’d like an invite.

ASIDE: We are well aware of the obvious concerns this will raise.   We believe there are great opportunities for creative stories, characters and Brands connecting with Users through this format.

ai_tweetconversation_01

16 July 2009

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