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Michele McNeal Akron-Summit County Public Library David Newyear Lakeland Community College Library Mentor Public Library Conversational Agent, Artificial Intelligence, Chatbot, Interactive Agent Virtual Employee, Web Agent, Cognitive Agent , Computerized Avatar... Virtual agents or Chatbots are a type of software designed to interact with and help users. They provide automated assistance with questions about an organization’s products and services. Natural Language Processing: the bot can interpret and respond in normal language – thus they don’t need to use or be familiar with a specific search language or syntax. Just for fun and to develop the programming for additional purposes… To provide information and improve customer service. Bringing the advantages of Chatbots to Public Libraries. How they’re different Goal – Get the answer vs. chatting or keep user on the site. Connecting to other websites – finding the best answer to the question, no matter where it is. Balancing Chat with Answering – finding the right combination of chat and linking ▪ Examining a different set of parameters They are in keeping with automation in other areas of the library Online Indices and Information Databases Self Checkout Self Registration Online Payment Ebooks and other Emedia Don’t let libraries be left behind… Librarians need to be in the forefront of using and directing this new technology If not, someone else will… for example Personal Assistant programs ▪ Evi – Android Based ▪ Siri – Apple Based ▪ Call Mom – Pandorabot’s entry into this arena The Brain, The Face, & the “Catbox”... The Brain This is the real AI component Written in AIML ▪ Simple ▪ Open Source ▪ Inexpensive ▪ Adaptable Similar to HTML The Brain Pandorabots Hosting ▪ Pandorabots offers a free “sandbox” for creating bots ▪ They also offer a secure hosted server environment ▪ Initial AIML reduction files are included ▪ Additional Superbot files are available The Brain Properties ▪ This is like your bots user profile on Facebook or YouTube. ▪ Gives you a chance to start customizing the bot. ▪ Creative use of Properties settings can simplify later code writing The Brain Basic AIML structure: ▪ categories = basic unit ▪ pattern = input ▪ template = response <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <aiml version="1.0"> <category> <pattern>What are library fines</pattern> <template>Fines for overdue books are ten cents per day</template> </category> <category> <pattern>How much are library fines</pattern> <template>Fines for overdue books are ten cents per day</template> </category> </aiml> The Brain Making coding more efficient ▪ Wildcards ▪ * asterisk (matching text takes priority) ▪ _ underscore (takes priority over a text match) <category> <pattern>* library fines</pattern> <template>Fines for overdue books are ten cents per day</template> </category> The Brain Making coding more efficient ▪ SRAI – (Symbolic Reduction Artificial Intelligence) <category> <pattern>fines</pattern> <template>Fines for overdue books are ten cents per day</template> </category> <category> <pattern>How much are library fines</pattern> <template><srai>fines</srai></template> </category> The Brain Condition Statements ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Reduce the number of categories Improve pattern matching Reduce or eliminate “yes/no” responses by users Improve use of <topic> Temporal Awareness ▪ Formatted date tag ▪ Locale, format, timezone ▪ Hours of operation, Holiday closings, fun responses for late night visitors The Face (& Voice) This is the “window dressing” for the brain and is entirely optional! ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Provides personality “Coolness” or “Wow factor User comfort Branding Accessibility if voice synthesis is enabled Can be simple or complex (or different for different implementation of the same bot) The Face SitePal offers a demo via the Pandorabots interface consisting of 4 avatar/face choices and 13 voice selections. We choose to have a non-human avatar ▪ Automatically avoided issues of race/class ▪ Cats have a long history of association with books and libraries ▪ They have a “cute”/”fun” appeal Based on years of living with cats Likes sushi and spider webs Engages in cat-like behavior Stanislaw Lem Fiasco Tales of Pirx the Pilot The Cyberiad infoTabby (Emma) writes Cowboy Poetry Kuroshitsuji Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Upkeep & Improvement Upkeep & Improvement Conversation Logs – The Catbox ▪ Continual review of logs provides feedback ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Stats on use and correct answers Missing categories/questions New or changing language Question flow Upkeep & Improvement Development/Maintenance time ▪ Initial development 6+ hours per week ▪ Currently 2-3 hours per week Upkeep & Improvement Re-thinking the Paradigm ▪ We’re constantly trying to balance the “chat” side of the bot with the “informational” side. ▪ Trying to find the most efficient way to get people to the information they need ▪ People don’t have much patience… even 3 questions is too much… “How can I help you?” Problems – single word vs multiple word input 2-5% of input invokes the UDC One could write mountains of code to address these issues or… Remove “yes/no” prompts Easier to add or edit knowledgebase Search arguments may be passed automatically to new categories. Must be very careful using the <topic> tags and with wildcards! <topic name="DBS"> <category> <pattern>_</pattern> <template> <think> <set name="answr"><star/></set> <set name="message">no match</set> <condition name="answr"> <li value="ALLDATA"><set name="message">alldata</set></li> <li value="* ALLDATA"><set name="message">alldata</set></li> <li value="ALLDATA *"><set name="message">alldata</set></li> <li value="* ALLDATA *"><set name="message">alldata</set></li> </condition> <think><set name="topic"></set></think> </think> <condition name="message"> <li value="no match"><srai>NOMATCH</srai></li> <li value="alldata">We have AllData available at all of our locations. You have to be in the library to use it. We have auto repair manuals, too, take a look in our catalog. <think> <set name="searcharg">AUTO REPAIR</set> <set name="search">catkey</set> </think></li> </condition> </template> </category> </topic> One large category using conditions User input matched against a list of keywords Keyword list can be unlimited When input matches keywords, a meaningful response is invoked, usually by using the <srai> tags. Originally the first step in guiding queries to meaningful responses, now removed. Borrow from the library, know about the library, or best answered by numbers? Even three questions were too much for our users! Input invoking UDC is now sorted: Category containing library services and policies. “Is this something you want to borrow from the library?” If “yes,” input is sent to the catalog as a keyword search. If “no,” input is directed to “facts and figures,” the most likely resource based on input. Wolfram|Alpha matches keywords like “population,” “how far,” “how many,” etc. DBpedia matches keywords like “history,” “who is,” “who are,” “who were,” etc. Ohio Web Library matches keywords like “article,” “articles,” obituary,” etc. This file is under constant updating and refinement. Patrons Positive response Use consistently good Popular with children and teens Marriage proposals Staff Mixed response Positive ▪ Eases burden of routine questions ▪ Allows more time for “real” questions Negative ▪ Resistance to technology/change ▪ Erosion of reference services ▪ Replacement by machine Cost per Use – 14 cents. 7116 conversation in 2011 (each conversation may have contained multiple questions) 2287 library related questions 2560 catalog or database searches WebPac Full Avatar Mini Avatar Information Kiosk Mobile Site Desktop Icon Phone App Emma has become “infoTabby” infoTabby AIML is available on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/aiml-en-us-ovrp-infotabby/ or on the infoTabby website: http://www.infotabby.org Open source - Apache 2.0 license Two ways to participate Non-Sharing path: Modify the library bot without regard to sharing your modifications. If you want to get started immediately, you can simply download a zip file containing the infoTabby AIML files (as well as the custom HTML files) on the downloads page of the project. There are two reasons why this approach will limit you however: ▪ You won’t have access to the latest changes to the AIML made by others in the library community, and ▪ The work that you do to improve the infoTabby AIML can not easily be used or shared with other library community members. Sharing path: Another path that is more beneficial to you and all other libraries involved in creating bots is to create what is called a “repository” of the AIML on your computer. With this repository, you can make changes and improvements to the AIML and share those widely with the rest of the library community. Step by step instructions for using Mercurial and creating your own repository can be found on the Google Code Project site: http://code.google.com/p/aiml-en-us-ovrp-infotabby/ Michele McNeal Akron-Summit County Public Library [email protected] David Newyear Lakeland Community College Library Mentor Public Library [email protected]