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Great read. I found particularly insightful the idea that conversational UI is like skeumorphism - trying to shoehorn analog forms (conversation) into a digital app, bringing along a bunch of details and actions that don't serve any purpose or are worse than the alternatives.

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Without trying to make any predictions, I wouldn't underestimate the human appeal of a conversational interface on the basis of its quantifiable inefficiencies. The author applies a narrow engineer's lens to something needing a more human perspective. You can't measure things like this strictly by counting taps and dismissing everything else about a conversation.

There is nothing human about chatbots. They are glorified menu-in-text-form delivery mechanisms. NLP technology isn't at the point where they become even slightly human-like when off-the-rails.

They look like a REST API over a messaging system. API's are meant for machines to communicate, not humans.

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