Can chatbots think and make decisions like humans?

Can chatbots think and make decisions?

Janpha Thadphoothon

Can chatbots think? Many students feel so. A recent survey shows that 3/4 of university students said that an AI chatbot by the name of English-X could think and make decisions.

ENGLISH-X is a conversation agent powered by Google's Dialogflow AI technology with the aim to promote English language teaching and learning. English-X is designed and programmed by Asst. Prof. Dr. Janpha Thadphoothon, Business English Program, Dhurakij Pundit University. in Bangkok, Thailand

This is the script of the conversation between a human and a chatbot (19 Oct 2022).

Human: Are you happy?

English-X: I can be sad and happy at the same time. By the way., are you happy?

Human: Yes.

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English-X:  The world will be a better place if they know that you are a happy person.

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Human: I am sure.

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English-X: Please complete your sentence.

Human: I am sure that you are a good person.

English-X: Thanks, I try.

One cannot help but think that this chatbot can think to some degree or extent.

This is part of classroom research titled “A Survey of University Students’ Attitudes About AI Chatbots”.

One of the survey questions is: 

“I personally feel that English-X (an AI chatbot) has the ability to think and make decisions.” 

There are five choices for a group of 47 students to choose from (Strongly Agree, Agree, Not Sure, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree). They are all Thai university students.

I would like to share this interesting finding. The data from the recent survey (October 18thm 2022) reveals that the majority of the students feel that English-X (an AI chatbot powered by Dialogflow CX) has some human-like qualities.

This finding may provide support for the movement toward the use of intelligent machines in business and education.