In General terms how a chatbot works

User's input is processed by a software function called a “classifier”, this classification associates an input sentence with an “intent” (a conversational intent) which produces a response.Think of a classifier as a way of categorizing a piece of data (a sentence) into one of several categories (an intent). The input “how are you?” is classified as an intent, which is associated with a response such as “I’m good” or (better) “I am well.” There are 3 ways to create text classification;

• Pattern matchers
• Algorithms
• Neural networks

Regardless of which type of classifier is used, the end-result is a response. Like a music box, there can be additional “movements” associated with the machinery. A response can make use of external information (like weather, a sports score, a web lookup, etc.) but this isn’t specific to chatbots, it’s just additional code. A response may reference specific “parts of speech” in the sentence, for example: a proper noun. Also the response (for an intent) can use conditional logic to provide different responses depending on the “state” of the conversation, this can be a random selection (to insert some ‘natural’ feeling).

A simple chat bot - Pattern match example