the art and science of computer conversation: talkabot 2016

The Art and Science of ConversationSarah Wulfeck / @skwulf

Lucas Ives / @lri

www.pullstring.com@pullstringinc

Sarah Wulfeck

• Head of Conversation Engineering (tools, AI, publishing)

• Former Pixar R&D, 2001-2010(ish)

• Technology to help artists achieve their vision

• PullString Creative Director

• Head Writer for Hello Barbie, Hello Dreamhouse

• Former Digital Agency Creative Director

Lucas Ives

Our mission is to develop

lasting emotional connections

between characters and audiences

through the art and science

of computer conversation.

Incorporated in 2011.

San Francisco, California.

Founding team mostly from Pixar’s software group.

Our Creative Process

What We Do: Creative InputScreenwriting, Playwriting and Acting Backgrounds drive the bot-writing process- “Breaking the fourth wall” / Scripted Improv- Asking deliberately worded questions to elicit

responses- Predicting how people will interact and engage, and

honing the narrative around them- Creating empathy in our Characters- Turning human interactions into technical features and

capabilities

What We Do: Characters FirstCharacter Narratives, stakes and motivations and POV

- Who is the character and what is their specific way of speaking?

- What does the character want? (Motivations of the bot)

- What is the character’s relationship to the user?

- What should the character have an opinion or response to and what should they ignore?

- How should the character respond to off-topic, inflammatory or other non-narrative interactions from the user?

Hello Barbie: A Bot Wrapped In Plastic

Underneath all that plastic is the most sophisticated, scripted, interactive conversational experience ever published.

Hello Barbie: “You’re My Best Friend!”

The Goals:Give the illusion of listening, display empathy, and remember information “like a friend” through 8000+ lines of dialogue and conversational tracks

Hello Barbie: All You Can Content

What’s Under The Hood:Known character, long backstory, point of view, areas of expertise, etc.

Hello Barbie: Conversational “Neural Network”

- I remember you said you love horses - have you ever ridden one?

- Speaking of animals, what other pets do you have?

- I always wished my pets could go to school with me.. Do you?

- What class do you like most?- Do you have a best friend at school?- Hey, speaking of.... I’m having a problem

with a friend. Can you help me out?

Hello Dream House: The “Smartest” House Ever

Voice-Controlled, Smart Mansion. Open/Close doors, operate elevator, create lighting concepts, turn the stairs into a slide, create custom sounds for everything, and more! (No, it doesn’t have temperature control. Dolls don’t need that.)

Hello DreamHouse: Your House, Your Rules

The Goal:The user drives the play / experience.

Hello DreamHouse: Anticipation Network

Thousands of extremely specific voice commands and intents the user can say to drive the behavior of the house.

Fast Forward Case Studies

Humani: Jessie’s Story

Millennial adrift in a SF-esque environment

Built to be your friend on the other end of the line

Real events unspooling in pseudo-real time

~3000 lines of dialog

Try it! http://m.me/jessiehumani

Humani: Jessie’s Story

Launch partner w/ FaceBook for f8

First text-only experience

NLP: Text speak vs. natural spoken language — when is a typo not a typo?

Call of Duty: Lt Reyes

Guerrilla marketing / ARG in conjunction with AKQA and Activision

Smaller experience, ~400 lines of dialog

Traffic wise, one of the largest FB Messenger bots

More than 6M conversations on day 1

Most media impressions for a CoD campaign ever

Required a custom scaling solution to be built by FaceBook

Humans

Built in conjunction with Channel 4 UK / 4Creative

~750 lines of dialog

Huge underground marketing campaign in London

Help your synth understand emotion, escape

Try it! http://m.me/PersonaSynthetics

Platform Overview

We now live in the world of computer conversation.

Personality, language, tone, mood, and style are the ways to give

your character a unique and authentic voice.

Content, Intent, and Context together.

The PullString Platform is the world’s best way to author

computer conversation.

Available now.

Professional authoring environment.

Fully integrated AI and machine learning.

Rapid iteration.

Team collaboration workflows.

Enterprise scale, analytics, and extensibility.

PullString Platform

We trade in the atoms of actual human conversation

These are tools for creative professionals

The world’s best way to create organic, natural, believable computer conversation.

PullString Platform

Machine Learning and Rules Based AI

AI EnginePrecision of rules based pattern

matching and the power of machine learned intent

IntentsModel high level user goals or use

built-in libraries to get started quickly

EntitiesExtract entities like names,

addresses, dates, and times and store them in state across conversations

RulesMaintain full control and precision

over the conversation with powerful pattern matching

SynonymsEasily define related concepts and

phrases, and automatically generate suggestions for new synonyms with powerful machine learning

Dialog ManagementEasy access to all the fundamental

building blocks of conversation like time-based responses, interjections, segues, activities, conditions, and priorities

Make anything talk. Anywhere.

Voice-enable IoT devices, apps, games, and other custom integrations

Simple RESTful HTTPS interface

PullString web APIs

External web APIsConnect to other web services

Simple JSON payload protocol

Embed Javascript in your content and we’ll execute it in a secure cloud sandbox

Thank you!www.pullstring.com

@pullstringinc

@lri / lri@pullstring.com @skwulf / sarah@pullstring.com