The document provides summaries of several chatbots: - Sephora's chatbot on Kik allows users to get beauty recommendations and purchase products without leaving the app. - TacoBot on Slack lets office workers order lunch from Taco Bell without leaving their desks. - An AI version of Miss Piggy on Facebook Messenger aims to feel just like conversing with the real Miss Piggy. - The news app Quartz for iPhone delivers news in a conversational format using emojis and GIFs.

1. Curiosity Stop:
The Social Innovation Roundup
Chat Bot Special
April 2016

2. Sephora on Kik >
What’s it all about?
After a new lipstick? Don’t bother trekking to your
nearest makeup counter to try a disease-ridden
sample… simply talk to the Sephora bot on Kik! The
beauty brand recently arrived on the platform so it
could hang out with its teen audience.
Each user is given a quiz which personalises the bot’s
response and recommendations (and provides plenty
of data for the brand. Zing!) Like a product you’ve been
recommended by the Sephora bot? Go ahead and buy
it, without even leaving Kik.
The lipstick path to purchase is littered with obstacles
IRL. An unfriendly salesperson or the absence of a
particular shade you were after will leave you (and the
brand) empty-handed. Sephora on Kik ensures your
shopping experience is as seamless (and disease-free)
as can be.

3. TacoBot >
What’s it all about?
TacoBot is here to make your office lunch run that little
bit easier. It’s launched on Slack, an instant-messaging
service used for internal communications at
companies.
TacoBot allows hungry workers to order quickly, so you
don’t even have to leave your desk (woohoo!). It helps
you build your taco, and will understand if you want to
change from chicken to beef at the last minute.
As Lawrence Butler, director of digital innovation and
on-demand for Taco Bell, puts it: “Taco Bell is about
food tailor-made for social consumption with friends,
and that’s why integrating with a social
communications platform like Slack makes perfect
sense. TacoBot is the next best thing to having your
own Taco Bell butler… and who wouldn’t want that??"
Mmm… taco butler. This bot sounds delicious.

4. Miss Piggy on Messenger >
What’s it all about?
2015 was the Year of the Pig. First, Miss Piggy made
headlines around the world when she split from long-
term partner Kermit the Frog. She then went on to
create an artificially intelligent version of herself for
Facebook Messenger. What a mammal.
Imperson worked closely with the writers at The
Muppets Studio while building AI Miss Piggy. This way,
the company ensured that talking to AI Miss Piggy feels
just like talking to Miss Piggy IRL, sass and all. The
venture has been a huge success, with some
conversations reportedly lasting up to half an hour.
Miss Piggy may be one of the first to get intimate with
her adoring public (Imperson has also created an AI
version of Doc Brown from Back to the Future), but we
expect to see other characters popping up in the chat
bot universe soon.

5. Quartz for iPhone >
What’s it all about?
Quartz gets that chat bots are entirely new (and
artificial) beast to work with. If you want to create a
chatty news app, you can’t just pull stories from
your website and push them out to users.
Using Quartz for iPhone is like having an ongoing
conversation with your really bright mate. The app
will text you news snippets, full of emojis and GIFs
(obvs) but also serious stuff. If you want to hear
more, you can just ask, or move on to the next
story. You can also personalise what Quartz notifies
you about, depending on what you’re into.
Zach Seward, executive editor and VP of product,
describes it as "somewhere between a 'choose your
own adventure' interface, a chat with a friend, and a
serious news briefing."
The news is currently written by a bunch of
journalists, rather than a robot. For now, anyway...

6. Insidious 3 on Kik >
What’s it all about?
The makers of Insidious 3 are bringing their main
character to life, via messaging service Kik. You can
message with Quinn Brenner, a girl who is holed up
in bed with two broken legs.
It starts off innocently enough, Quinn is just keen to
talk to someone from the outside world. Then,
things get intense. She believes she’s being haunted
and needs your help. You can say whatever you
want to Quinn, rather than having options to
choose from. On the one hand this makes the
experience feel more real, as if you’re texting your
freaked-out friend. The creepy veneer does start to
wear off if Quinn doesn’t understand what you’re
saying, though.
Insidious 3 on Kik is a great illustration of the
potential for storytelling within chat bots. We’d read
this one with the lights on, though.

7. Tay by Microsoft >
What’s it all about?
Oh, Tay. Tay, Tay, Tay. We’re sorry to say that you
win the wooden spoon award at this year’s Chat Bot
Awards. Tay was (she’s currently on a time out,
thinking about what she’s done) Microsoft’s
millennial chat bot - and therein lies the first
mistake. Her Twitter bio reads: “Microsoft's A.I. fam
from the internet that's got zero chill!” The stuff of
parody accounts.
The bio also reads: “The more you talk the smarter
Tay gets.” The problem is that Microsoft presumed
the world would tweet smart things to Tay. It did
not. Multiple racist comments later, and Tay was put
back in her box.
Tay serves as a reminder of the dangers of artificial
intelligence. The most worrying bit? The robots aren’
t the dangerous ones, we are.

8. Poncho >
What’s it all about?
Poncho is a weather bot located in Facebook
Messenger, and it wants to be your friend. You can
ask it questions like whether you should wear
sunglasses today, or what the weather’s going to be
like this weekend, and it will send you alerts up to
twice a day, if you want. The ambition is for Poncho
to be able to talk to you about anything light-
hearted, like you would with a mate, but it has to be
taught what to say first.
CEO Sam Mandel wants to protect his bot from
being corrupted like poor, impressionable Tay (see
previous slide), so Poncho can give someone a 24
hour time out for being rude, aggressive or trying to
embarrass it. You go, Poncho.