Chatbot Bobbi at the Long Night of Science at the Center for Tangible AI and Digitalization (17-June-2023)

Author: Andreas Lommatzsch

The Long Night of Science (LNDW) is an annual event that takes place in Berlin and Potsdam. It is a science festival that offers visitors the opportunity to explore science and research in a fun and interactive way. In 2023, for the first time the Center for Tangible AI and Digitalization (ZEKI) participated in the Long Night of Science.

Our research group presented Bobbi, the Chatbot of the Berlin’s administration (developed in a cooperation between the TU Berlin and the ITDZ Berlin). Usually, Chatbot Bobbi reliably answers questions related to the Berlin’s administration on the Berlin’s official Service Portal. At the LNDW visitors could personally get in touch with our robot and talk face to face with Bobbi. As a special surprise, Bobbi had prepared a small quiz allowing the visitors to test their knowledge about Bobbi’s job and the services offered by the Berlin’s administration.

The presentation had been actively attended by a large number of visitors. We discussed with the expectations and requirements to conversations with robots as well as the technical foundations of chatbots. This included classical Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods as well as Transformers and Large Language Models. Visitors learned about recent trends in NLP and enjoyed the interaction with our Chatbot Bobbi.

The strong interest in the project and the profound discussion with the visitors made the event a big success. We plan to present an improved, much more skilled version of chatbot Bobbi in 2024.