本文共 20477 字，大约阅读时间需要 68 分钟。
机器学习做自动聊天机器人
by Alec Jones
通过亚历克琼斯
I’m going to tell you everything I learned while coding a popular Facebook Messenger bot, and my crazy first week of marketing it (which involved a tweet from one of the Jonas Brothers, a viral Facebook post in Thailand, and an interview with the BBC).
我将告诉您我在编写流行的Facebook Messenger机器人时所学到的一切，以及我疯狂的第一周营销(涉及Jonas Brothers的一条推文， 泰国的病毒式博客， 和 英国广播公司(BBC )采访)。
Like many software developers, my mission to create something useful started with a decision to .
像许多软件开发人员一样，我的使命是创建一些有用的东西，首先要 。
My problem: I was always forgetting what homework I had to finish at night.
我的问题是：我总是忘记了晚上必须完成的作业。
In grade 8, there were plenty of mornings when I’d have to get to school really early to get it done.
在八年级，有很多早晨，我必须很早就去上学才能完成。
I knew that wasn’t going to work for my remaining 4 years of high school because there’s no way I could handle showing up at school at 6:30 am on a regular basis to finish math homework. ☹️
我知道这对我剩余的四年高中都行不通，因为我无法按时在上午6:30上学来完成数学作业。 ☹️
So I decided to build a chatbot that would prompt me at the end of every class, asking me to tell it what homework I’d been assigned. I hoped that lots of other students struggled with the same problem.
因此，我决定建立一个聊天机器人，该机器人将在每节课结束时提示我，要求我告诉我要分配的作业。 我希望其他许多学生也遇到同样的问题。
Why a chatbot? Sure, there’s a lot of buzz around bots right now, but mainly because students are never far from their smartphones (especially in class)… and they’re already familiar with texting. ?
为什么是聊天机器人？ 当然，现在机器人周围有很多嗡嗡声，主要是因为学生们离智能手机 (尤其是在课堂上) 再也不远了 ……他们已经很熟悉发短信了。 ？
I started out building a chatbot using SMS, but I quickly learned that there’s a cost to sending text messages from a US-based SMS service (like Twilio). And even if I used a Canadian phone number, it would be really expensive for people to use my bot in other countries.
我开始使用SMS构建聊天机器人，但是我很快了解到，从美国的SMS服务(如Twilio)发送文本消息会产生一定的成本。 即使我使用了加拿大的电话号码，在其他国家/地区使用我的机器人的人也会非常昂贵。
But Facebook Messenger was free.
但是Facebook Messenger是免费的。
In grades 6 and 7, I’d learned a fair amount of PHP, and I created a few simple web applications. But building a chatbot using Facebook Messenger was entirely new, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn Ruby on Rails.
在6年级和7年级，我学到了很多PHP，并且创建了一些简单的Web应用程序。 但是使用Facebook Messenger构建聊天机器人是全新的，我认为这将是学习Ruby on Rails的绝佳机会。
I also had to learn Facebook Messenger’s API and how to create a behind-the-login website to manage students’ classes and times. These two things alone involved a steep learning curve, but I figured there’s nothing more exciting and satisfying than turning an idea into something that students around the world can use.
我还必须学习Facebook Messenger的API，以及如何创建一个后台登录网站来管理学生的课程和时间。 仅这两件事就涉及到陡峭的学习曲线 ，但我认为没有什么比将一个想法转变为全世界的学生可以使用的东西更令人兴奋和满足的了。
Nearly 9 months after I began working on my chatbot, was born.
我开始使用聊天将近9个月后， 出生了。
It’s not like I worked on building him full time. Between summer vacation (no laptops allowed), school, soccer, school, and several depressing “start again from scratch moments”, there weren’t that many stretches of uninterrupted coding time.
我不是在全职培养他。 在暑假期间(不允许携带笔记本电脑)， 学校 ，足球场， 学校和一些令人沮丧的“从头开始”，没有太多的不间断的编码时间 。
Even with sporadic bursts of dev time, CB (as I like to call him) turned out just the way I had hoped. He’s a reliable but slightly cheeky Facebook Messenger bot who’s dedicated to helping students.
即使有零星的开发时间，CB(我喜欢称呼他)的结果也与我希望的一样。 他是一个可靠但略带面子的Facebook Messenger机器人，致力于帮助学生。
Here’s how he works…
这是他的工作方式……
After you send CB an initial message and set up your class schedule, he’ll text you near the end of every class, asking whether or not you have homework. At the end of each day, CB will send you a tidy list of homework that you need to finish.
在向CB发送初始消息并设置了课程表之后，他会在每节课快结束时给您发短信，询问您是否有家庭作业。 每天结束时，CB会向您发送您需要完成的整洁作业清单 。
Simple and useful.
简单实用。
I think he works so well because he eliminates the need for students to remember to write stuff down. CB remembers for them.
我认为他表现出色，因为他消除了学生记住写下来的东西的需要。 CB为他们记住。
When you go on vacation, you can pause CB and he’ll ask you to choose a date for resuming the messages. If you forget to tell him about homework right after class, you can catch him up later.
休假时，您可以暂停CB，他会要求您选择恢复消息的日期。 如果您在下课后忘记告诉他有关家庭作业的信息，您可以稍后再找他。
There aren’t a bunch of complicated commands. And since so many students have their phone in their pocket all day, Christopher Bot is always with them.
没有很多复杂的命令。 由于有这么多学生整天将手机放在口袋里，克里斯托弗·博特(Christopher Bot)始终陪在他们身边。
Fun fact: Christopher is the name Alan Turing gave to his machine in WWII that cracked the , and it’s the reason I named my bot Christopher.
有趣的事实：克里斯托弗(Christopher)是阿兰·图灵(Alan Turing)在第二次世界大战中给他的机器赋予的名称，该名字破解了 ，这就是我将机器人克里斯托弗(Christopher)命名的原因。
To me, the most important part of CB is his perfect “memory”. He remembers to text the student and not the other way around.
对我而言，CB最重要的部分是他完美的“记忆”。 他记得要给学生发短信，而不是相反。
Simple questions with simple answers makes the conversation go faster. Christopher Bot may not be the smartest bot out there, but he knows how to get to the point. ?
简单的问题和简单的答案可以使对话进行得更快。 Christopher Bot可能不是那里最聪明的机器人，但他知道该怎么做。 ？
In order for CB to do most of the work, he needs to have info about a student’s classes. And getting that information requires a web form.
为了使CB能够完成大部分工作，他需要了解有关学生班级的信息。 获得这些信息需要一个Web表单 。
I figured that if users had to type the same thing over and over again for each day of classes, they might get bored or distracted (or both) and leave. So to move things along more quickly, I decided to create an auto-filling form, based on the class data that a student enters on the previous day.
我认为，如果用户每天上课都要重复输入相同的内容，他们可能会感到无聊或分心(或两者都离开)。 为了更快地进行操作，我决定根据学生在前一天输入的课堂数据创建一个自动填写表格 。
So a user enters their classes for Monday, and then when they proceed to create those same classes for Tuesday, the data is already there in the form — ready to be accepted as-is or tweaked. For most students, entering class data will take less than 30 seconds. ?
因此，用户输入星期一的班级，然后当他们继续为星期二创建相同的班级时，数据已经以表格的形式存在-准备好按原样接受或调整。 对于大多数学生来说，输入课程数据将花费不到30秒的时间。 ？
I also wanted the conversations with Christopher Bot to move along quickly because there’s not much time between classes.
我还希望与Christopher Bot的对话能够Swift进行，因为上课时间不多。
and GIFs may be cool, but I wanted the conversation to be crisp and clean, so students wouldn’t have to spend much time talking to Christopher Bot.
和GIF可能很酷，但我希望对话 ，因此学生不必花很多时间与Christopher Bot交谈。
So my next major design decision was to add Messenger “quick-replies”.
因此，我的下一个主要设计决策是添加Messenger的“快速答复” 。
These are little buttons that sit just above the keyboard, so a user doesn’t have to type a full response. Using canned responses for “Yes” and “No” saves the user time, and it also controls the set of responses, so I don’t have to worry about people answering with ya, yup, na, nope, etc. ?
这些是位于键盘上方的小按钮，因此用户不必键入完整的响应。 将罐头答复设置为“是”和“否”可以节省用户时间，并且还可以控制响应集 ，因此我不必担心人们回答ya，yup，na，nope等。
Finally, I wanted Christopher Bot to feel “human like” but not pretend to be human. To accomplish that, I added a typing delay for most auto responses, mimicking how a real conversation goes.
最后，我希望克里斯托弗·博特(Christopher Bot)感到“像人一样”，却不假装自己是人 。 为此，我为大多数自动回复添加了键入延迟，以模仿真实对话的进行方式。
If CB responds in less than 1 ms, some users might not even realize that a new message has been delivered… it happens just too fast.
如果CB的响应时间少于1毫秒，则某些用户甚至可能没有意识到已经发送了一条新消息……它发生得太快了。
Typing delays are a nice add-on feature of Facebook Messenger — one of several smart tools to help bots feel more human, but without trying to fake people out.
键入延迟是Facebook Messenger的一个不错的附加功能，它是帮助机器人使人感觉更人性化的几种智能工具之一，但又不会试图伪装出来 。
One of my biggest challenges developing Christopher Bot was handling time zones around the world. I grasped the concept well enough, but sorting out the timing of classes and texts in 24+ time zones required a deeper understanding.
开发Christopher Bot的最大挑战之一是处理世界各地的时区 。 我已经很好地理解了这个概念，但是在超过24个时区中整理课程和课文的时间安排需要更深刻的理解。
Class times are all stored in the user’s local time zone, and every time CB texts a user, it’s based on that same, local timezone.
上课时间都存储在用户的本地时区中，每次CB向用户发送短信时，其时间都基于相同的本地时区。
Simple enough, but Christopher Bot (i.e., the server) “lives” in a single time zone.
很简单，但是Christopher Bot(即服务器)“生活”在一个时区中。
So when CB checks the database to decide whether or not to send a text at that moment, he has to first check to see if the server time matches the class ending time in the user’s time zone.
因此，当CB检查数据库以确定此时是否发送文本时，他必须首先检查服务器时间是否与用户所在时区中的类结束时间匹配。
I found the best way to handle the messy situation was to convert all times to (UTC). Then all I had to do was store the UTC offset (UTC +/-) alongside the students’ class ending times, to make sure everything lined up.
我发现处理混乱情况的最佳方法是将所有时间都转换为 (UTC) 。 然后，我要做的就是将UTC偏移(UTC +/-)与学生的上课结束时间一起存储，以确保所有内容都对齐。
When users visit they’re welcomed by a nice-looking home page. It wasn’t designed by me, though.
当用户访问它们会以漂亮的首页受到欢迎。 不过，它不是我设计的。
I’m no HTML/CSS wizard, so I decided to purchase a Bootstrap template to incorporate into my app.
我不是HTML / CSS向导，所以决定购买Bootstrap模板并整合到我的应用中。
I thought getting it set up would happen in 3 simple steps:
我认为只需3个简单的步骤即可完成设置：
Relax knowing I have a sexy website
放心知道我有一个性感的网站
I was WRONG. So wrong!
我错了。 错了！
The application that “powers” Christopher Bot is built on Ruby on Rails.
为Christopher Bot提供“动力”的应用程序基于Ruby on Rails构建。
The problem was that my Bootstrap template didn’t know I was using Ruby on Rails.
问题是我的Bootstrap模板不知道我在使用Ruby on Rails。
So I spent days learning about how Rails uses Javascript files, references images, etc. And about a week later, I finally got it all working. The images were loading, and everything looked beautiful.
因此，我花了几天的时间来了解Rails如何使用Javascript文件，引用图像等。大约一周后，我终于使所有工作正常了。 图像正在加载，一切看起来都很漂亮。
But I began to notice a few problems. The Javascript icon animations were too much.
但是我开始注意到一些问题。 Javascript图标动画太多了。
The navigation bar was broken.
导航栏损坏。
And most problematic, the browser’s scroll functionality had been altered, making the page scroll too quickly on Chrome — and not at all on Safari and Firefox!
最有问题的是，浏览器的滚动功能已更改 ，使页面在Chrome上的滚动速度太快了，而在Safari和Firefox上根本没有滚动！
Frustrated by the variations between browsers… to the point of wanting to throw my monitor out my bedroom window… I decided it’d be better to tackle the problem than to explain to my parents how my monitor suddenly went “missing”.
浏览器之间的差异让我感到沮丧……要把显示器扔到卧室的窗户之外……我认为，解决这个问题要比向父母解释我的显示器突然“丢失”的原因更好。
It was clear that the Javascript was my biggest problem, and I tried an extreme approach to solving it.
很明显，Javascript是我最大的问题，我尝试了一种极端的方法来解决它。
I removed every bit of Javascript in the template from my app. Expecting things to break all over the place, I was shocked to see that the opposite had happened.
我从应用程序中删除了模板中的所有Java语言 。 期待事情在整个地方破裂，我震惊地看到相反的事情发生了。
Not only were the scroll speed and cross-browser issues fixed, but so was the navigation, and the annoying visual effects were gone.
不仅固定了滚动速度和跨浏览器的问题，而且导航也得到了修复，并且讨厌的视觉效果也消失了。
I couldn’t believe that I’d managed to fix everything by trying to break it.
我简直不敢相信我已经设法通过打破它来解决所有问题。
Trying to ruin your app isn’t a good solution to tackling coding problems. But I realized that some outcomes are totally unexpected. I tried something that felt like a long shot, and it taught me that you should try everything before giving up.
尝试破坏您的应用程序不是解决编码问题的好方法。 但是我意识到有些结果是完全出乎意料的 。 我尝试了一些远景，它教会了我在放弃之前应该尝试的一切。
How do you grow a chatbot from 1 user to many, many users? Ideally through word of mouth. Maybe even viral word of mouth.
您如何将聊天机器人从1个用户发展为许多用户？ 理想情况下通过口耳相传。 甚至病毒式的口口相传 。
People are always curious about new things their friends are using. I hoped that students would see their friends using Christopher Bot and ask what it is. It’s organic, and it’s also free marketing (perfect, since I have no money for PPC ads!).
人们总是对朋友正在使用的新事物感到好奇。 我希望学生能看到使用Christopher Bot的朋友并问它是什么。 它是有机的，也是免费的营销(非常完美，因为我没有钱购买PPC广告！)。
I built a share button in CB to help move things along. After 1 week of of use, Christopher Bot politely asks users to share Christopher Bot on Facebook. All a user has to do is click the link, and they can easily share CB with their friends.
我在CB中建立了一个共享按钮 ，以帮助前进。 使用1周后，Christopher Bot礼貌地要求用户在Facebook上分享Christopher Bot。 用户所需要做的就是单击链接，他们可以轻松地与朋友共享CB。
But with only a handful of friends using Christopher Bot at the beginning of February, I needed to find a way to get more exposure.
但是在2月初只有少数几个朋友使用Christopher Bot时，我需要找到一种方法来获得更多的曝光率。
Before trying to market CB in a big way, I needed to get some additional feedback from my target audience.
在尝试大规模推广CB之前，我需要从目标受众那里获得一些其他反馈。
Where do high school and college students hang out online? Turns out it’s pretty tough to find large communities of high school students on the web, but is a great place to find college students.
高中和大学生在哪里闲逛？ 事实证明，在网络上找到大型的高中生社区非常困难，但是 是找到大学生的好地方 。
I posted to a few sub-reddits for specific universities, starting with a couple in my home province, British Columbia — asking for feedback on the general concept and whether Christopher Bot could work for college students.
我发布了一些针对特定大学的子目录，从我家乡不列颠哥伦比亚省的一对夫妇开始-征求有关总体概念以及Christopher Bot是否可以为大学生工作的反馈。
Reddit users were pretty helpful overall, sharing their opinions and offering useful feedback about the differences in “homework” between high school and college.
Reddit用户总体上很有帮助，可以分享他们的意见，并提供有关高中和大学之间“家庭作业”差异的有用反馈。
But there was also a bunch of skeptics who insisted that I wasn’t a 14-year-old…
但是也有一群怀疑论者坚持认为我不是14岁…
Here’s a comment from a true skeptic:
这是一个真正的怀疑论者的评论：
“Being a ‘little kid entrepreneur’ is a great marketing tactic. This 14-year-old? He’s actually an older male, but he’s disguising himself as a young boy to appeal to everyone. Seeing a little kid be able to do so much is beautiful, attractive and everyone feels an incentive to support that little kid simply because he’s well… little.”
“成为“小企业家”是一种很好的营销策略。 这个14岁？ 他实际上是一个较大的男性，但他伪装成一个小男孩，以吸引所有人。 看到一个小孩子能够做很多事情是一件美丽，吸引人的事，每个人都只是因为他的健康...小就觉得有动力去支持那个小孩子。”
And another from someone who thinks I’m some desperate marketer:
还有一个认为我是一个绝望的商人的人：
“This definitely was not made by this kid and is certainly being driven and marketed by someone who has had a lot of experience. Like they even had the foresight to do put a ‘ref=reddit’ marker in the URL. They are spamming for their analytics.”
“这绝对不是这个孩子做的，而且肯定是由经验丰富的人推动和推销的。 就像他们甚至具有远见卓识一样，在URL中放置了“ ref = reddit”标记。 他们为分析而发垃圾邮件。”
So someone who’s 14 can’t figure out how to create a simple URL parameter? Boo.
因此，只有14岁的人不知道如何创建简单的URL参数？ 嘘
My #1 goal for February was to launch on , and after my dad posted a message to his Facebook account about Christopher Bot, I heard from Andrew Wilkinson of (and Dribbble and Designer News)… who kindly offered to “hunt” CB on February 16th (thanks Andrew). Andrew also lives in Victoria!
我2月的＃1目标是在 ，在我父亲向他的Facebook帐户发布有关Christopher Bot的消息后，我听到 Andrew Wilkinson(以及Dribbble和Designer News)的消息……他主动提出“狩猎” CB将于2月16日发布(感谢安德鲁)。 安德鲁也住在维多利亚！
Andrew posted CB to Product Hunt shortly after midnight, while I was fast asleep (not really).
午夜过后不久，安德鲁(Andrew)将CB发布到了产品搜索(Product Hunt)，当时我正睡着(不是真的 )。
Unfortunately for me, brand new products from Google and Facebook were also posted that day. ?
对我来说不幸的是，那天还发布了Google和Facebook的全新产品。 ？
Even with the stiff competition, CB still managed to get 300+ upvotes, tons of encouraging comments, and finished in 6th place overall for the day. ?
即使竞争激烈， CB仍然获得了300多个投票 ，大量令人鼓舞的评论，并最终在当天排名第六。 ？
It was a ton of fun watching CB on Product Hunt, and it taught me a lot about the world of entrepreneurship — including the importance of just getting something out there in front of people.
在Product Hunt上观看CB真是太有趣了，它教会了我很多关于企业家精神的世界-包括在人们面前展示一些东西的重要性。
People like Kevin Jonas. ?
人们喜欢Kevin Jonas。 ？
It was probably in part due to my age, but I think Kevin Jonas tweeted about CB that day (to his 5.1M followers!) because he saw that it was going to be useful for other students.
这可能部分是由于我的年龄，但是我认为Kevin Jonas那天在推特上发了关于CB的推文( 向他的510万关注者！ )，因为他看到了CB将会对其他学生有用。
Someone else noticed CB on Product Hunt… journalist, Dave Lee.
有人注意到CB在“产品搜寻”中…… 新闻记者Dave Lee。
On Thursday — Product Hunt launch day — Dave Lee from BBC News reached out to me about writing an article on CB:
在星期四(Product Hunt发布日)上，来自BBC新闻的Dave Lee向我联系了有关撰写有关CB的文章：
On Friday afternoon, my dad and I joined Dave via Skype and I shared my whole story. I was super nervous before the call, but Dave put me at ease (thanks, Dave).
在星期五的下午，我和我的父亲通过Skype加入了Dave，我分享了我的整个故事。 打电话之前我非常紧张，但是Dave让我放心了( 谢谢Dave )。
Dave told us that he’d be working on the article well into the evening on Friday, but it wasn’t live when I went to bed at midnight. But first thing the next morning, I checked the Christopher Bot signups… and there were more than 1,000 new accounts created overnight.
戴夫告诉我们，他将在周五晚上进行这篇文章的撰写，但是当我在午夜上床睡觉时，它并没有出现。 但是第二天早上，第一件事是，我检查了Christopher Bot的注册情况……隔夜创建了1000多个新帐户。
And with 1,000 new accounts came a bunch of bug reports and dozens of new feature requests. I had to leave marketing mode and enter full-scale support mode.
随着1000个新帐户的出现，一堆错误报告和数十个新功能请求得到了解决。 我不得不离开营销模式， 进入全面支持模式 。
Just 72 hours later, Dave Lee emailed my dad:
仅仅72小时后，戴夫·李(Dave Lee)给我父亲发送了电子邮件：
“Alec asked me how many readers our articles tend to get, [and] I told him we consider 500,000 uniques a successful piece. I’m pleased to say the piece on Christopher Bot has had 1,000,000 unique views since going up on Saturday.”
“亚历克(Alec)问我，我们的文章倾向于吸引多少读者，[我]告诉他，我们认为500,000个独特之处是一件成功的文章。 我很高兴地说，自周六上映以来，克里斯托弗·博特(Christopher Bot)上的那段作品已拥有1,000,000种独特的观看次数。”
According to Facebook analytics, a ton of new accounts were coming from Great Britain (which makes sense, given the BBC article).
根据Facebook分析，大量新帐户来自英国(根据BBC的文章，这很有意义)。
But one country was overtaking the UK for new accounts: Thailand.
但是，有一个国家/地区超过了英国： 泰国 。
Wha?!?!
哇？！？！
Then one of CB’s new users emailed me this:
然后，一位CB的新用户给我发了电子邮件：
Someone had posted a blurb about Christopher Bot to Facebook in Thailand.
有人在泰国的Facebook上发布了有关Christopher Bot的内容。
And yes, that’s 11,000 likes… 3,800 shares… and 205 comments (none of which I could understand — even with Google Translate).
是的，那是11,000个赞 …3,800个份额…和205条评论(即使使用 Google Translate，我也听不懂)。
Building Christopher Bot was a great experience for me to learn about bots and how to make a bot’s interactions work well for its users.
建立Christopher Bot对我来说是一次很棒的经验，使我了解了机器人以及如何使机器人的交互对其用户有效 。
In addition to tweaking how classes are scheduled (a common request from new users), my goal moving forward is to improve CB’s conversational skills.
除了调整课程安排方式(新用户的常见要求)外，我的前进目标是提高CB的会话能力。
I want him to be able to “understand” more so he can be even more helpful for students. I want him to be able to understand more variations in responses as well as recognize misspellings like “textbok work” or “stdy for my quiz”.
我希望他能够更多地“理解”，以便他对学生有更大的帮助。 我希望他能够理解更多的回复变化，并能够识别“ textbok作品”或“我的测验风格”等拼写错误。
Christopher Bot can always be made smarter.
Christopher Bot总是可以变得更聪明。
A new feature I’m considering building is “homework analytics” — for example, to track which classes have the most homework assigned. Christopher Bot collects a lot of data every day (individually and in aggregate), and it would be cool to share what he’s learning with users.
我正在考虑构建的一项新功能是“作业分析”，例如，跟踪分配了最多作业的班级。 Christopher Bot每天(单独和汇总)收集大量数据，与用户共享他所学的内容很酷。
I’ve had a ton of fun creating and marketing Christopher Bot — and there’ve been many more ups than downs in the journey.
我在创建和营销Christopher Bot方面充满了乐趣-在旅途中，经历了许多波折而不是波澜 。
I hope he takes me to even more interesting places in the future.
我希望他将来带我去更有趣的地方。
If you made it this far and liked my story, I would sincerely appreciate a click on the Recommend button. ?
如果您走了这么远并且喜欢我的故事，那么我非常感谢您点击“ 推荐”按钮 。 ？
翻译自:
机器学习做自动聊天机器人
转载地址：http://ajzzd.baihongyu.com/