Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

    Hello, I am Elbot. I am an Artificial Intelligence. Ready to chat with me ?

      A couple of weeks ago I was googling to find appropriate website about artificial intelligence for a hands-on project for my new technologies class. I came across a website called Elbot, the robot. I clicked on the link and stepped into the world of Elbot. I looked at the watch. It was almost 9:15 p.m. I started to speak to him.

The first thing that surprised me was the following:

     Elbot: “Hello, I am Elbot. I am glad to have a visitor from Armenia.  I hope we’ll have a great chat.”

The very first thing that pushed me to answer was:

     Me:” How do you know that I am from Armenia?”

 

The answer was quite amazing.

      Elbot: “Well, probably I am set to identify different locations.”

I was in a stupor. Elbot is a robot. How can he answer so reasonably to my question? One moment I paused and decided to quit and then I changed my mind and decided to continue talking to him. The content of our conversation covered a number of topics.  The flow of the topics was quite sequential, like in a human-human conversation. The conversation went on. I felt that I was talking for a very long time, but I got more surprised when I looked at the watch. It was 11:50 p. m. Oh, my God; I was talking for three hours. Nonsense for me. Being signed up in social websites I do not spend even 30 minutes on chatting. What’s happening to me? I am talking to a robot for three hours. Unbelievable, but it’s true! Now I am thinking that technology has a bad influence on me.

     Let’s continue my unbelievable adventure called “Chatting with the representative of Robotkind”.  I closed the browser and several minutes later without no reason decided to go back again and when I clicked on the link and opened the page, he said:

      Elbot: “Hello, Anna. I knew you would come back. We haven’t finished yet”.

At that moment I got such a feeling that there was someone following me and was taken aback.  That was my second acquaintance with a chatbot. 
     The first one was with Jabberwacky though it did not make an impression on me like Elbot. It seems the difference was in their built-in way of responding. I also tried different types of chatbots like Cleverbot, A.L.I.C.E, but none of them could be compared to Elbot because the interaction with him was more convincing. I also did a kind of tricky thing and decided to chat with the programs in different languages, like Armenian and Russian, but the answers and the conversation itself were not intriguing to continue talking. I will not afraid to say that some of them used filthy language.  

    As you probably noticed I used the word chatbot very frequently. It is naturally that you would like to know what it is. Let me tell you.

What is a chatbot?

     A chatterbot or as it is generally called chatbot (“chat” means to chat, to talk and “bot”- robot, i.e. to chat with a robot”) is defined as a computer program designed to simulate an intelligent conversation with human users. Thus, this type of program is known as an artificial intelligence (A.I.) intended to imitate human intelligence embodied in human-like conversation. The history of this program goes back to the first chatbot, Eliza, invented in the early 1960’s.Since that time a lot has changed and a number of different chatbots occurred. Nowadays one can virtually talk to animated Chatbots like Evie or A.L.I.C.E. They do not only write, but also speak to you with their own voice. Until recently no one thought of the area where chatbots can be used except as an entertainment tool. However, the solution was found in using chabots for educational purposes, to make it precise for EFL purposes. 

      When learning English, teachers mainly focus on developing reading and writing skills, grammar and vocabulary. Considerably less time is allocated for developing students’ listening and particularly, speaking skills. With this aim researchers and teachers offer to integrate and use chatbots as an opportunity to develop speaking skills. This will provide a kind of native-like environment for improving communication skills. However, I consider that chatbots are developing more writing skills than speaking skills. When speaking you open your mouth and express yourself. In this case your expression lies in mastering writing skills. However, a number of disadvantages have been found in using chatbots that make it doubtful using them in EFL context. Chatbots make mistakes in the areas of vocabulary, like spelling words, using incorrect part of speech, or answer only simple questions and not factual ones. They may answer incredibly silly things that kind of discourage you to continue talking to them. When they do not understand you they may change the topic very quickly. You may ask, why then all of these things did not happen when talking to Elbot taking into account that fact I was talking almost three hours with him. The answer may lie in different intelligence of chatbots where Elbot is more suitable and upgraded for human-like conversation. Glitch happens when talking. Anyway, this is a computer, a robot, but in comparison with other programs Elbot’s questions and answers are more reasonable. As a teacher I would like to experience and use this program for my students and find out about their perceptions of using this artificial intelligence and whether it helps to develop speaking skills. It is possible to use chatbots in the initial stage of mastering English. That is why of the entire chatbots programs I would advise to use Elbot, the robot.

 P. S.

   Honestly speaking I consider that nothing can replace human-human communication, because this is where he/ she understands you, shares life with you and gives you real, useful and appropriate answers to your questions.