It’s difficult to argue that we aren’t on the cusp of an artificial intelligence revolution. Businesses, individuals and everyone in between are increasingly using advanced AI programs to perform complex functions; everything from improving mobility for people, customer support to personal assistance to simple conversation is moving into the realm of AI. We’ve gathered together 10 of the smartest online bots we know, for better or worse.
1. Tay
This one’s more of a cautionary tale about the dangers of exposing AI to other people. Back in March 2016, Microsoft unveiled Tay, a Twitter bot that was intended to be an experiment into “conversational understanding”. Tay was a sort of crowdsourced chatbot, the idea being that the more people who talked to her the more she would learn. Unfortunately, Tay became a little too smart too quickly as hate-filled messages flooded her feed. Eventually, Tay began to assemble her own messages built from the blocks she was given by other Twitter users, effectively creating a new conspiracy nut from nothing. Microsoft eventually shelved the project and replaced it with the next item on this list, but it’s a cautionary tale nonetheless.
2. Zo
Having taken the lessons learned from Tay to heart, Microsoft set about crafting a new chatbot, one which would be an altogether less unnerving experience than Tay. The result was Zo, which was launched in December 2016 on the Kik Messenger platform and eventually spread to Facebook and Twitter (although you can only chat with Zo via DM rather than openly). Excepting a couple of slightly off-colour political jokes, Zo is mostly the project Microsoft hoped Tay would be, all light pokes at the Windows operating system and learned conversations. The bot is still active, and holds the record for Microsoft’s longest continual chatbot conversation at 9 hours and 53 minutes.
3. OptionRobot
Let’s change tack a little from personal conversation to business. OptionRobot comes highly recommended by the good folks over at BinaryOptionsExpert.net, a site that trawls the best trading bots to give you the optimal experience when engaging in automatic trading. OptionRobot is their number 1 pick, and it’s easy to see why. Using a linked broker account, OptionRobot will generate trading signals and automatically execute trades it deems to be sound investments. It comes complete with three options: Classic, the safest and most secure system; Martingale, a high-risk high-reward forex system; and Fibonacci, in which trade size changes based on your win/loss sequence. BinaryOptionsExpert says OptionRobot has a 92.76% success rate, which is pretty phenomenal, and it’s easy to use too, so even if you’re not super au fait with the world of trading bots you’ll get on well with OptionRobot. We reckon this is one of the smartest bots online, and the best at doing what it does.
4. Ems
Ems is a London, UK-based AI which recommends housing to you based on a series of questions it asks you. It’s completely free (which makes sense, given the property market’s value in London) and one of the most intelligent bots we’ve met when it comes to understanding our needs. We took Ems for a test run, trying out a series of different living circumstances, property needs and preferred areas, and were consistently pleasantly surprised by the degree to which Ems seemed to get it right. It’s easy to request a viewing for a property Ems has suggested, and it takes things like budget and lifestyle into account so your recommendations are always tailored to you.
5. Yva
The applications of artificial intelligence in the world of performance analytics are only just beginning to be understood by business leaders, but they are undeniable. Yva is a smart AI that allows employers to identify the best-performing employees at their company and understand why those employees place consistently higher than their co-workers. Once Yva has trawled your database of corporate emails and Slack conversations, it’ll send personalised recommendations to employees with suggestions on how to improve their performance, and those recommendations will be specific to each employee. There are a ton of other features available on this astonishing platform including resignation probability charts, interpersonal conflict detection with clients and many more.
6. Stella
Ever wanted the process of applying for jobs to be less painful? Stella is here to help with that. This is an AI-based service that collects a certain amount of information about you, then automatically matches you to jobs its AI thinks you’ll love. Stella is different to other job networks because of its AI’s level of sophistication; its technology pairs you only with jobs it knows you’ll want to go for because of the information it collects about you. What’s more, once you’ve settled on a job you want to apply for, Stella will create and submit the application for you in seconds, leaving you to get on with the things that are important to you.
7. Eezy
Some people might find the idea of Eezy a little off-putting, but we love it. Essentially, Eezy is an artificial intelligence-based evening planner. The official website promises that Eezy will “plan evenings you’ll love”. Using thousands of datapoints and information about your mood and personality, Eezy will recommend activities for you. If you’re not feeling the cinema tonight, Eezy will suggest things that better fit your mood; if you’re looking for somewhere good to eat, Eezy has tailored recommendations for you. It’s also capable of adjusting plans in real time, meaning you can alter your evening however you see fit and Eezy will keep up. You can also share plans with friends, allowing you to create an unforgettable evening with the people closest to you. Eezy’s AI never failed us when we were looking for nightlife, and it won’t fail you, either.
8. Woogie
Technically, Woogie isn’t “online”, but it does have an online element in the form of downloading new games and riddles as they’re released. Woogie is an adorable little robotic assistant for kids that’s designed to proactively engage their imagination and deliver pertinent facts based on their interests. The more the child talks to Woogie, the smarter it becomes, so if your child spends the right amount of time with Woogie then its AI will become an indispensable friend. There’s a team of professional comedians behind Woogie’s fun, friendly approach, and the artificial intelligence at its core is remarkably advanced.
9. Ada
Move over, WebMD – there’s a new hypochondriac detector in town! In all seriousness, though, Ada could well be the future of healthcare, especially when it comes to less serious maladies. Ada is an AI-powered health platform that uses machine learning to help people understand the conditions they might be suffering from. It works in a similar way to sites like WebMD; Ada will ask you a series of questions about how you’re feeling and what symptoms you’re experiencing, and based on your answers it’ll tell you what it thinks you might have. WebMD, though, clinically (no pun intended) throws conditions at you willy-nilly, while Ada’s suggestions are specific to you and tailored to the answers you’ve given. It’s remarkably accurate, too, as it should be given its backing by over 40 doctors and medical editors.
10. Aiva
This platform is a little more specialist, as it’s geared towards musicians. Still, the service it offers is pretty staggering in its implications. As a species, we’ve been experimenting with computer-generated music for many years, but Aiva is built from the ground up to help composers end writer’s block and generate custom scores for them. Using its advanced machine learning process, Aiva will ask you for influences, then use them to create something it thinks you’ll like. You can also upload MIDI files to give the engine an idea of what you want your composition to sound like, and Aiva will recognise the sound patterns and use them in its own generation. The Pro plan offers musicians the ability to use tracks created using Aiva with no restrictions, which is pretty sweet for film and TV composers in particular.
