Microsoft’s New Smarter Child

April 1st, 2007

Do you need help training your pet zebra?  I did, so this is how I found it.

  1. Open Windows Live Messenger.
  2. Add the following email address as a contact: smarterchild@hotmail.com
  3. Open a chat window with the new contact and type: “web zebra training” and <Enter>.
  4. It’s the 3rd link down: http://www.foresthillfarms.com/zebra_training.htm

What just happened?  You just started talking to a Windows Live Service Agent named Smarter Child.  Huh? What’s that you ask?

This is a technology created by a company named Colloquis which was acquired by Microsoft last fall.  Colloguis envisioned the technology to be used as a customer service auto attendant, but it is available via IM as a lark, it seems.

Although this technology should have some interesting applications, details of how Microsoft plans to productive it remain elusive.

Now try this:  Go back to a conversation with Smart Child.

  1. Type “home” and <Enter>
  2. Type “tools” and <Enter>
  3. Type “notepad” and <Enter>
  4. Type “This is my first note.  I have no idea what I will do with this later.”
  5. Type “notes”

Cool, huh?  Though, I’m not sure what this is good for yet.  It seems like a disambiguation filter over a cheesy OS.  Neato.

It’s not going to pass the Turing Test, but it is fun. There is even an SDK to build your own agents.

Enjoy.

David Starr

  • DaveF

    D00d, this is so iRC circa 1987 on the Zenith boat anchors at my college. No one is ever going to use this. There are people who barely speak my language and are willing work for not very much $ who are more help to me than this.

  • http://elegantcode.com Daddy Starr

    Not sure about that one. Maybe you are comparing apples and oranges, eh?

    It is important not to see the technology as the interface through which it is presented in the IM implementation. There would be lots of ways to use the underlying service in imaginative solution that appear more “modern”.

blog comments powered by Disqus