Aug 15, 2017

Bot! zine - Issue #87

By Bot! zine • Issue #87 • View online

Hello everyone! Apologies for missing last week, I was a little under the weather and catching up from a week of remote working.

My favorite story this week is from Wired, below. Everyone was in a bit of a panic over the Facebook bots that “created their own language.” There’s a huge difference between artificial intelligence figuring out how to be more efficient and Skynet.

@veronica

Required Reading

No, Facebook’s Chatbots Will Not Take Over the World

Bots programmed to swap balls, hats, and books fell into a hype vortex.

www.wired.com • Share

8 ways we can prepare for bots stealing our jobs

Even the most conservative estimates project automation to take 6 percent of all U.S. jobs by 2021. Here are some steps we can take to prepare the United States for automation right now.

venturebeat.com • Share

Alexa Meets Slack

Surely by now you have tried a few Slack bots. Those nifty little add ons simplify workflows, alert you on critical incidents, manage your presence and basically make Slack, Slack++.

chatbotsmagazine.com • Share

20 bots that can help you build your startup

Tens of thousands of bots have been built to do things like promote movies and sell chicken wings, but there’s also an entire league of bots created to help businesses grow and streamline tasks. Chances are pretty good you will need more than just bots to get your business off the ground, but the bots below were selected because they can quickly do many of the things startups need most — like craft a pitch, incorporate a Delaware C-Corporation, and scale.

venturebeat.com • Share

How to Build a Slack Bot

PCMag spoke to Amir Shevat, Head of Developer Relations at Slack, and John Agan, Senior Developer Relations Manager at Slack, about how to build a Slack bot from scratch. The process requires some considerable developer know-how in spots, but Shevat and Agan walked us through two simple bot creation scenarios to which all businesses can relate: building a basic helpdesk bot and enabling in-channel notifications. Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to build your very own Slack bot.

www.pcmag.com • Share

Why the typical voicebot user is a 52-year-old woman

There’s a race heating up in the world of artificial intelligence, and it involves smartphones, consumers, and voice. Voice-activated smartphone apps use a combination of artificial intelligence, cloud-based natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning to power their services. And with all the buzz around apps like Siri and Alexa, it’s clear that tech giants are competing for consumer attention in yet another area.

venturebeat.com • Share

Which API is right for your Slack app?

Slack’s three most popular APIs help developers build all kinds of apps. Each has its merits, depending on your app’s use case — whether, for instance, your app needs to be notified of events, pull information from a Slack channel, or stream all events being sent within a team.

medium.com • Share

New Bots, Tools, and Directories:

Andy Baio on Twitter

What are your favorite new Twitter bots? Anything launched this year, feel free to share your own work. (Great collection of Twitter art bots in the replies, check them out!)

twitter.com • Share

How to make a Twitter Bot with Google Spreadsheets (version 0.4) – Zach Whalen

Today, I’m releasing an upgraded and much improved version of that tool. I’ve been calling it “SSBot”, but I welcome your suggestion for a better name. This blog post contains the instructions for setting up that tool, but the steps are also included in the spreadsheet.

www.zachwhalen.net • Share

this.tellPun(); on Twitter

hey guys! i made a bot to tweet lil date ideas! :> $ means little or no money. $$ means some money. $$$ means a wHOLE LOTTA MONEY

twitter.com • Share

Shakespeare insults (@shakyinsultbot)

tweet “insult me” or “roast me” to get your own insult, you paunchy flap-mouthed giglet #shakespeare #insults #botALLY

twitter.com • Share

Events

8/15 Build a Twitter Bot with JavaScript - Learn to Code | Thinkful Atlanta

This workshop won’t be a step-by-step JavaScript introduction. Instead we will build something useful and fun, while learning some basic JavaScript concepts along the way

www.meetup.com • Share

8/15 [Workshop] Let’s Build a Chatbot! - Artificial Intelligence : Las Vegas

What are chatbots? Why are they such a big opportunity? What can they do? How do they work? How can I build one? How can I meet other people interested in chatbots?

We’ll answer these questions and more.

www.meetup.com • Share

8/16 Talkabot ATX August

This meetup is for anyone looking to better understand the emerging technologies surrounding text and voice-based software experiences. We want to invite professionals of all backgrounds to come learn from our experienced guests in a friendly, welcoming environment.

www.meetup.com • Share

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By Bot! zine

The latest and greatest news from the world of bots!

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