Chat bots, are they the start of something bigger or just a waste of time?

Numerous chat bots have been deployed online  for the purpose of FAQ answering and site guidance. There are three main types of chat bot coding, Eliza which was developed by Weizenbaum in 1966. Parry was developed by Colby in 1973 and Alice who is the most recent development in chat bots.

The most interesting bot I have discovered is the Eliza chat bot. This  Eliza has been programmed to act as a Rogerian psychotherapist designed to help you with problems in your life. After limited testing the Eliza chat bot, I feel would not replace a human psychologist as the chat bot can not tell how the person who is talking to it is reacting. This a a key skill which will allow someone to open up their feelings to another. Interaction is a big part of conversation, but chat bots lack this and I found it very difficult to keep talking to the bot. After some time it did become quite tedious.

Although I found it difficult to have a personal conversation with a chat bot, I feel it would work well as online support. It is perfectly capable of answering FAQ's, with a chat bot answering the questions it would give the site a personal touch. It can be difficult to tell the difference between at chat a bot and real person. Chat bots are rated using a method called the Turing Test, this grades the chat bot on how well it can impersonate a human in real-time written conversation.

The main feature which allows the chat bot to fool people in to believing it is a real person, is responding to any input that has the word 'Mother' in it, for example with "tell me more about your family". This creates the illusion of understanding. I am sure as computer programming continues to develop it will become more and more difficult to tell the difference between the bot and a person. Other than the use of online support, it has been known that chat bots have been used to pass on spy ware but this in fairly uncommon practice but this is something to keep in mind while using them. I cannot see any real use for chat bots other than for online support as it is difficult to have a meaningful conversation with one. They will not replace a real person but they will, I feel become more common place on websites for big organisations.

Chat bots have developed a lot over the last few years and will continue to become more advanced.  They may even be able to have spoken conversations not just written. At the moment I can see potential with the chat bot for use in online support or possible in places like train station where the answer to the question has limited possibilities. 

Although saying that I do not feel they can replace a real person. So to answer my original question, chat bots at the moment are a waste of time talking to if you are looking for a real conversation.