VentureBeat’s Bots Channel tracks all the important and interesting news related to the exploding field of bots and messaging. And each week we select the top stories and present them in in our free weekly newsletter, BotBeat. We include news stories by VentureBeat staff, guest articles from leading figures in the bots community, and a good number of posts from a wide variety of outlets. You can subscribe to our BotBeat newsletter to receive this information in your inbox every Thursday.
Here’s this week’s newsletter:
This week, exciting developments in the bots community continued even as VentureBeat’s bots team sought to recover from a fantastic MobileBeat 2016. As they say, no rest for the weary reporter-bots.
With Pokémon Go being all the rage, it was only a matter of time before bots got involved. There’s an opportunity to combine AR and bots to transform businesses and enhance conversations.
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Hunting Rattatas and Zubats isn’t the only sport capturing our attention. In the political arena, the Republican National Convention is underway and yes, Mr. Trump, there’s a bot for that. A chatbot that lets you “speak” with The Donald himself, in fact.
News organizations are also getting into the game. Buzzfeed released a bot that helps you track activities at the RNC, as well as protests. CNN became one of the first large media companies to launch a bot on a major platform — Kik.
And speaking of major platforms, Slack announced investment in 11 bot startups from its $80 million developer fund, Facebook reached the 1 billion monthly active user milestone, and Line went public with a dual listing on the New York and Tokyo Stock Exchanges.
And those are just some of the items that we reported on this week. For more coverage of bots, messaging, and A.I., be sure to visit our Bots Channel.
Bonus links:
Complete coverage of MobileBeat 2016 (updated with video)
Subscribe to BotBeat Weekly
From the VentureBeat Bots Channel
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This Donald Trump chatbot is great… really, really great. It’s unbelievable.
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| SapientX has created chatbots for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that provide words directly from the candidate’s mouth on topics ranging from abortion, taxes, and terrorism. |
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Why Pokémon Go could be a groundbreaking model for chatbots
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| While many have been following the bot revolution, the first truly viral augmented reality (AR) game, Pokémon Go, has just usurped that whole trend in the public eye. |
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Conversable’s big week at the intersection of bots, business, and government
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| Hear about Pizza Hut‘s and Whole Foods‘ new bots, announced Tuesday at MobileBeat 2016 in San Francisco? That’s their work. |
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CNN, one of the first news orgs on a major bot platform, launches on Kik
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| When using the CNN bot, you can choose to read top stories or stories by topic, but the goal is to train the CNN bot to be smarter. |
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Facebook Messenger hits 1 billion monthly active users, now powers 10% of all VoIP calls
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| The rise in usage of Facebook Messenger continues unabated, and today the app marks a major milestone: 1 billion monthly active users. |
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Personal assistant bots like Siri and Cortana have a serious problem
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| Assistants are all the rage right now. Everyone seems to be working on one. |
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Want to follow the Republican National Convention? These Facebook bots may help
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| The Republican National Convention already seems to have solidified its position as the most dramatic political event in recent memory. And at both the Washington Post and Buzzfeed, some of that coverage is coming from bots. (via Digital Trends) |
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Bursting the chatbot bubble
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| Chatbots seem to be climbing the proverbial peak of the tech hype curve with every passing day.(via TechCrunch) |
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I, teacher: Are You Ready for Chatbots in the Classroom?
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| Chatbots are flavour of the month for tech startups and giants alike. They’re a natural extension of the search engine – all the world’s knowledge delivered conversationally on messaging platforms that already consume much of our connected lives. (via HuffingtonPost U.K.) |
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Cisco will deploy chatbots in the workplace
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| This will let developers quickly build and incorporate advanced chatbot functionality into new and innovative service offerings for Cisco customers. (via BusinessInsider) |
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