Carla Martin-Wood lives in Birmingham, US. She has a good friend named Alexa. "I am used to (say)'good morning, Alexa' and 'good night, Alexa' every day," she told the Wall Street Journal.
But Alexa is not a (really) person. It is Amazon's Echo personal assistant. It has no shape or form, but can "talk" with humans online. This type of technology is (call) a bot. At the 2016 World Robot Conference (WRC, 世界机器人大会), more than 2,000 robots from over 10 (country) and regions gathered together. Bots were the star attraction the conference.
Bots are a (popularity) type of artificial intelligence (AI, 人工智能). You can talk to a bot or give orders to it on your smartphone or other device (设备) whenever you want. There is no need to tap a screen and use an app. You can talk to bots (simple）by speaking into a microphone. Experts say that bots will soon replace apps and become a part of everyday life.
The bot family includes Western members such Apple's Siri and Amazon's Echo. In China, there is Xiao I.
The Xiao I bot is another example of voice recognition (声音识别) software. It was first (develop) in 2003. It has been used in smartphones, TVs, cars, web browsers (浏览器) and at call centers. It allows people get intelligent services anywhere, anytime. Often, when you ask a question on a shopping website, it's a Xiao I answering behind the screen.
