Week 7:Digital Automata

This is a very interesting topic. through digital automata, it provides a more efficient and effective way to provide customer service. as the example in eBay, it also saved cost for the company. For example,the virtual agent in eBay can give instant answers to customer which avoid thousands calls to customer service. therefore, eBay do not need to hire as much employees to answer the phone as before.

2) 

what is turing test?

A turing test is devised by the English mathematician Alan M. Turing to determine whether or not a computer can be said to think like a human brain. A human interrogator is isolated and given the task of distinguishing between a human  and a computer  based on their replies to questions that the interrogator poses. After a series of tests are performed, the interrogator  attempts to determine which subject is human and which is an artificial intelligence. The computer's success at thinking can be quantified by its probability of being misidentified as the human subject.

There is a interesting sample turing test I found in Youtub. However, the interrogator is also an artificial intelligence.

The argument against turing test----Chinese room:

This argument says that Turing test can not prove that machine can think. Searle argues that a software could pass the Turing Test simply by manipulating symbols of which they had no understanding. Without understanding, they could not be described as "thinking" in the same sense people do. Like a Chinese room, a person who can not speak Chinese can communicate with Chinese by using the instruction to select an appropriate response without understanding it. The video below demonstrates the Chinese room

3)

can virtual agent succeed in delivering high quality customer service over the web? 

I had a experience with an English learning virtual agent before. That is for practicing my English speaking skill. I can talk with the virtual agent to practice my speaking. However, it just sounds fantastic. The virtual agent's response is very slow. The other problem is I have to speak something which is demonstrated by the instruction. So I can not chat with the virtual agent like a real human conversation.

But I think virtual agent may be good in some situation, like Virtuoz virtual agent demonstrate in the Video below. The virtual agent can give instant answers to customer which avoid thousands calls to customer service.

There is another example on MyCyberTwin, when I try to register a free twin, there is a virtual agent called Sarah to answer my questions. The interesting things is that I can ask personal question like "how old are you? who is your boss?" she can response me properly and also ask me "how old are you?". She told me that The MyCyberTwin Design team now manage her brain so she can learn from the people she chat with. (she can also have some facial expression like a big smile when I told her she is pretty. : ) )

In this sense, I do think virtual agent can deliver high customer service in the future.Because the more questions been asked by customer, the virtual agent is more able to answer the question.