Latest in (open source) chatbot/fake AI?

Question

What is the lastest in open source chatbot/fake AI \'technology\' ? Is ELIZA/ALICE/MegaHAL still \'current\', or have there been made any advances in the past decade ?

Answer 1

I created a tool for myself as I wanted to build simple chatbots and manage the whole lifecycle easily: create, test, deploy and analyse. It gained some popularity so I turned it into a startup: https://www.hubtype.com/products/chatbots.html

It's useful to get a chatbot up and running fast using rich interactive elements that messaging apps provide like quick replies, carrousels, etc, which make interaction very easy without the need of fancy AI. However, if you need more complex text interactions you can also integrate state of the art Natural Language Understanding services like IBM Watson or api.ai.