A Forbes article published last week reported that Chinese chatbots (WeChat and Alipay) were used to suppress the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Although the chatbots did something unacceptable in Western societies (i.e., using the assigned color codes like red, green, or yellow to indicate individuals’ freedom level for travel and social activities), they produced effective results in a short period. And the article mentioned nine other ways that AI can be useful in such circumstances.

When it comes to disseminating credible, useful, and unique information, chatbot technologies can deliver valuable insights promptly and accurately. For example, the question “Is plasma donation approved by the FDA?” produces a clear answer by exClone’s virtual expert, Dr. Margo, compared to Google search results.

On the other hand, asking Google the same questions produced contradictory results written in a language that is not easy to understand (April 26, 2020, New York.)

The virtual expert technology delivered by exClone does not only produce more precise answers to single-step questions, but also engages the user in a multi-step dialogue investigation, very similar to how a human expert would deliver advice. The important point here is the capability of the computer to ask the user questions to provide better answers as shown in the example below.

Google, Alexa, or other similar assistants do not ask the user questions for a more refined answer. This is the fundamental difference between the exClone’s dialogue technology (based on AI) versus short cut coding efforts devoid of AI.

exClone’s Dr Margo is a virtual expert that encapsulates knowledge from credible sources (curated by human experts) then disseminates accurate answers in a multi-step, human-like dialogue. The human expert can continue teaching the system after deployment by just talking to it.

The BETA version of Dr. Margo is available via mobile apps (with voice interaction like Alexa) or by the Web app at this link.