Facebook bots can now negotiate, compromise

Washington

FACEBOOK'S artificial intelligence researchers announced on Wednesday they had broken new ground by giving automated programs or "bots" the ability to negotiate, and make compromises.

The new technology pushes forward the ability to create bots "that can reason, converse and negotiate, all key steps in building a personalised digital assistant", said researchers Mike Lewis and Dhruv Batra in a blog post. Up to now, most bots or chatbots have had only the ability to hold short conversations and perform simple tasks such as booking a restaurant table, according to the researchers.