Abstract

Imagine this: a digital butler that roams the Internet, intuitively knowing your likes and dislikes, retrieving perfect strands of news and information that you never would have discovered through old-fashioned surfing. That's the holy grail of personalisation and automation on the Internet.

Bots, also called intelligent agents or personal profile agents, are poised to help you find a job, download software, follow your stocks, search for bargain air fares, bid for auction items, grab image files or audio news clips and perform other feats of digital magic. Over time, your Bot would be trained to learn that you love ABC Radio and the Wallabies Rugby Union team, that you need the stock price of BHP each and every morning, and that politics bores you to tears.

A quiet revolution is taking place right now. As the amount of content on the Internet explodes into literally billions of web pages, informed people are using automated and self-directed software called Bots or Intelligent Agents to eliminate information overload, increase productivity, and obtain a sharp competitive advantage.

The word Bot is short for robot, which is derived from the Czech word robota meaning work. The term Bot has become interchangeable with agent, to indicate that the software can be sent out on a mission, usually to find information and report back. Strictly speaking, an agent is a Bot that goes out on a mission. Other Bots operate in place.

Are Bots New Arrivals on the Internet Scene?

Bots were not invented on the Internet. Robotic software is generally believed to have been created in the form of Eliza, one of the first public displays of artificial intelligence. Eliza is a computer program created in 1996, that can engage a human in conversation: Eliza asks the user a question, and uses the answer to formulate yet another question

Why are these strange little programs becoming so popular?

The concept of an intelligent software agent has captured the popular imagination of people. We like the idea of delegating complex tasks to software robots. These Bots can make plane reservations, order books from an e-commerce store, investigate the latest song from our favourite band or singer, or monitor our share investments on an up to minute basis.

Perhaps one of their biggest strengths is that Bots can roam the Internet finding information for us. More sophisticated Bots can negotiate purchases from factories, schedule factory production runs, negotiate delivery schedules with its customers’ Bots, and even automate the invoicing process

How can Bots help us with the ‘information overload’ caused by the sheer volume of datafacts, allegations, and statistics on the Internet today?

Since the Internet lacks the centralised retrieval mechanism and standard classification system of a standard library, locating relevant information in the Internet's vast repository can be very frustrating. Since all Web servers are connected, robot-like software is the perfect way to perform the methodical searches needed to find information.

Web search engines send out robots that crawl from one server to another, compiling the enormous lists of Internet addresses (called URL’s) that are at the heart of every search engine. Shopping Bots also compile enormous databases of products sold at online stores so they can analyse and respond to user enquiries for price and product comparison.

Another useful feature of Bot driven searches is the way filters are automatically and dynamically applied to results. Duplicate entries, files that are too big, and sites which are not responding are automatically filtered out.

The dynamic filtering is really very powerful. When you locate a document that is exactly what you are looking for, you can mark it in the Results List and then have the Bot re-rank the search results based on the context of the document you marked.

For instance, if you like British comedy, you can find a page that contains the quote "Blessed are the cheese makers" and mark that page to have the Bot search for other pages with Monty Python references, instead of people who make cheese.

Is this the Same as Data Mining?

Bots have great potential in data mining, which is the process of finding patterns in enormous amounts of data. Because data mining often requires a series of searches, Bots can save labour as they "persist" or stay in a search, refining it as they go along. Intelligent Bots can make decisions based on past experiences. This will become an important tool for data miners trying to perfect complex searches delving into billions of data points.

For example, data mining software can help retail companies find customers with common interests. It doesn't just change the presentation, but actually discovers previously unknown relationships among the information.

We have concentrated on searching, are there other types of Bots?

There are a great many however, we only have time to discuss a few. For instance, a ChatterBot called OnStar will be found in more than 20 of General Motors’ car models this year. It is a GPS/voice connection to a General Motors call centre that gives you information using a ChatterBot that speaks to you and performs simple tasks.

Right now this ChatterBot gives directions, finds and reads email, and allows drivers to query various websites or databases by conversing with the driver in silky, artificial speech tones.

It is expected that the next generation of ChatterBot will phone you when you get an important email, or act as your personal assistant to book a flight and change the booking if the first one is cancelled or full. It is also expected to help with personal finance, shares, travel services, auctions, shopping, ticketing, and searching. All in all, a convergence of telephony and the Internet with secure, voice-enabled agents.

Another type of Bot from Botizen converses with a company’s customers, retrieving and answering frequently asked questions. Not only are answers to the natural language questions well worded, but the Bot also calls up relevant Web pages in the lower frame of the page when appropriate. Should the support needs of the customer get too complicated, a live chat feature over-rides and allows the customer to chat with a human customer service rep.

As humans we love news and information, what are Bots up to here?

Advocates predict that in just a few years these electronic serfs will replace both online newspapers and portals as the primary source of an Internet users' online news. They'll be using Bots to go out and round up highly selective news items and return it in the format of the users’ choice. News in the future may be very different from what we are now seeing in the daily newspapers and on local TV stations.

Entrepreneurial journalists should do well in a Bot-populated world. One can easily imagine automated bidding software programmed to rummage around the Internet for articles on niche subjects. Bots will discover stories and then negotiate a transaction with another Bot, allowing the Bot's owner to access the article for the negotiated fee. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of users and it could turn into a "nice little earner".

What are some of the more unusual Bots actually being used today?

RumorBot is Internet patrolling technology that scours the Internet, discovering idle or malicious gossip and tracking it back to its source. It searches online newsgroups, chat rooms and lists. Unlike TV, radio, billboards and other types of media, the Internet is generally not considered to be controlled.

Every day, eight million new Web pages and postings are added to the two billion that already exist. RumorBot does what no human could possibly do. It searches them all in real time, working out where the gossip mongering started by analysing the time and location of each posting. An example of this is the fake press release made by a former employee of an Internet press-release distributor, indicating turmoil at a major networking company, Emulex. The company's stock plunged 62 per cent. Then there's the kind of postings that spread lies about brand-name products by claiming they have secret and dangerous ingredients. These can also be tracked back to their sources.

RumorBot can also track the growth or decline of a rumour. It has been suggested that if it were told how, the RumorBot could trace the source of obscene information, like paedophile photographs traded on the Net.

Do Bots have a darker side; are they always well thought of?

At times, Webmasters look on some forms of robots as a nuisance. A spider robot may uncover information the Webmaster would prefer remain secret. Occasionally, a Bot will misbehave as it crawls through a Web site looking for URLs (Web addresses) over and over, and thus slowing down the server's performance.

As a result, search engine developers have formed standards on how Bots should behave and how they can be excluded from Web sites.

How can we get our hands on some of these Bots and Intelligent agents?

One of the best sites is called BotSpot. It classifies Bots and Intelligent Agents by subject. Most of the Bots there are also discussed on the site and can be downloaded and used on your computer. Some require a fee for permanent registration while others are completely free. Browse through the Best of the Bots and Bots by Category to begin your journey in the brave new world of Bots.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au