I spoke with a blind woman this week who loves talking with her smart speaker, Alexa. "She's quite a character." I imagine that some lonely people might get co

I spoke with a blind woman this week who loves talking with her smart speaker, Alexa. "She's quite a character." I imagine that some lonely people might get comfort talking to their house plants, so a smart speaker that can actually talk back, however limited, would be a great improvement. So a chatbot can be useful even if zany at times. The big issue is how user expectations are set up. I'll put up with a digital assistant trying its best to help process my query with much more tolerance than a chatbot trying to pretend it is a human. Researchers are trying to narrow the gap between these two. But for now I will enjoy the former and be annoyed by the later.