There is artificial intelligence coming to you in the form of a messaging board that google has been working on for about a year. It’s a service that’s like google, but now with a virtual assistant that could send messages to you and answer your messages. There isn’t any clear element saying that this will be like Google Hangouts or even their messenger, and if it’ll be on other platforms, or if it’s just a new messaging service. One source said that it’s an extensible platform, which means that they could build these chatbots based off the data from google.   There isn’t a launch date for the service, but it’s being worked on extensively.

Now, an AI chatbot does make sense for google, especially with consumers becoming more mobile and searching for them. There is another chatbot system right now, such as Siri for apple, Cortana for windows, and Alexa for Amazon, but they are imperfect due to voice recognition, and in many cases they can be unsatisfying.

For many, this might be the feedback system that people need, because there hasn’t been a great one made yet. Virtual assistants do require the conscious decision to stop doing something and actively seek out the virtual system, and many users haven’t developed it yet. At the same time, there are millions of online users who search on search engines and use social media. The habit to reach out to people and message them, along with responding to messages through notifications, is growing stronger by the day. Google doesn’t have a social network or messaging app, but it does have the search engine. It could potentially be the best virtual assistant system, and it does make sense for google in a way.

Now, there are some problems with this. Even though chatbots will be great for personal and conversational things, they will also replace social networking. The messaging apps are a great place for the chatbot, because many of us spend a lot of time on the apps, with only texts for the user interface, and some of the uncertainties that are eliminated because the virtual assistants rely on voice recognition.

However, there are other risks as well. Humans aren’t simple creatures, and because of this they have cognitive biases, irrational thoughts, and even emotion, and sometimes the line between messaging a person and the AI talking to another will start to deteriorate the need for conventional speaking, and it can change things. Chatbots might make a person feel like they are talking with a friend, but unlike humans, the chatbots will be almost like dogs and have selflessness, meaning they will always be there for you and have time for you. This can create an irresistible desire in the human mind. This in turn can create a need to be around an AI and have am relationship with them instead of humans for many people, so there is the risk that people will start to rely on the AI and the machine instead of humans as well.