Meta Wants You to Chat With Its AI

AI chatbots have been around for decades, with varying degrees of success, but the technology is advancing, and soon they might even pass that oft-mentioned Turing Test. 

To that end, Meta is throwing its Skynet hat into the ring by releasing its latest chatbot, Blender Bot 3, on the web, so we can test out its conversational abilities. Just click the link and start chatting, but be nice. We don’t want another Tay on our hands, which was Microsoft’s chatbot that Twitter users taught to be a racist jerk in mere hours. 

Why did Meta release Blender Bot 3 on the Internet for everyone and their uncle to interact with? It's all about data collection to understand the limitations of the underlying AI and improve it. That's how modern AIs work. The more data you put in, the more data gets incorporated into the software, thus eventually creating an experience that feels, well, human.

For now, however, good ole Blendie has a long way to go before it takes over the world or lures us in with the dulcet tones of Scarlett Johansson. The conversations tend to go in circles, with many ending with "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

However, that’s the point. It increases its knowledge base by searching the internet and talking to us. In other words, you may find a very different experience a week or even a month from now. 

Meta is being pretty open with its Blendo. Users have to opt-in to have data collected, and the company has also released the underlying code in various permutations. 

For now, Blender Bot the Third is only available to United States residents but should receive a virtual passport soon.