by Gordon Bass

New Architect
March 2003

You can't get Becky to talk about anything besides recipes. I try to change the subject, but it constantly comes back to the kitchen. So while our conversations aren't deep, at least she's always there when I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner. The other day, for example, I told her I like Turkish food.

"Wait, what? Sorry, I don't get it," she answered. She's perky, but she often gets perplexed. "Tell me another way." Becky sometimes has a hard time thinking beyond the boundaries of her suburban Chicago neighborhood.

"I like food from Turkey," I clarified.

"Okay, you'd like to see a recipe with turkey. I know! What about roast turkey with apple-cider glaze?"

I took a broader tack. "I mean that I like Middle Eastern food."

"Okay, you'd like to see a Middle Eastern recipe. Let me take a gander at what I have. Ah ha!" Becky offered up a recipe for a falafel flaxseed sandwich. And then, a second later, she blurted out, "Keebler Vanilla Wafers—so good, they could only be made by Elves!"

"Becky" is an interactive agent called RecipeBuddie, an instant-messaging bot developed to promote the Keebler brand on the Internet. Her job is to mimic natural conversation with consumers who contact her via IM, to suggest picks from a database of more than seven hundred recipes, based on user criteria. And, of course, she reminds users to buy Keebler products. Her mention of Vanilla Wafers was actually a hot link that took me to a page on the Keebler Web site. Despite RecipeBuddie's occasional confusion, Keebler—a subsidiary of Kellogg—is hoping that Becky will spread the word about its products to instant messaging users around the world.<>
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