How 5 Chatbots Are Changing The World For Good
by Amrit for BotList
There’s a gold rush in the chatbot ecosystem today. Ever since Facebook launched chatbots on Messenger in April this year, many startups and developers have scrambled to make a splash and secure a first mover’s advantage. Just this week, news outlet Quartz launched a Bot Studio to experiment with bots and AI for journalism. At BotList, we make it easy for you to discover new chatbots that help you with shopping, booking your flights, give you book recommendations and much more. Today we’d like to focus on five chatbots that are tackling large problems and changing the world for good.
1. MissingKidsBot — Amber Alerts on Slack
Receive active Amber Alerts and help spread the search for missing children
Did you know that roughly 2,000 children are reported missing in the United States everyday — that’s around 800,000 every year? MissingKidsBot is an innovative and effective slack bot that sends real-time Amber alerts and helps spread the search for missing children.
This chatbot has been hailed as a “huge breakthrough” in advancing the Amber Alert system and others hope this will “inspire the development of more tech-for-good”.
Add MissingKidsBot to Slack channel today and leave a review on BotList.
2. Smokey: Real-Time Air Quality in Messenger
Real-time worldwide air pollution data at your fingertips
92% of people in the world don’t have access to clean air. That causes 6.5 million premature deaths every year — which is more than deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and traffic accidents combined.
Smokey is a Facebook Messenger chatbot that brings real-time air quality in your city to your fingertips. Smokey is essential for anyone living in a city with unhealthy levels of air quality — especially runners, outdoor enthusiasts, asthma patients, families with young children, and pregnant women. [Disclaimer: I built Smokey after experiencing hazardous air pollution levels in Delhi.]
Talk to Smokey about air pollution on Facebook Messenger today, learn more at their website and leave a review on BotList.
3. Charity:Water — Global Water Crisis in Messenger
The first nonprofit to accept donations through Messenger
If you’re reading this right now, chances are you don’t have to worry about water much. Unfortunately, hundreds of millions of people have to go to great lengths to get a clean sip of water.
So far, Charity:Water has funded 20,062 water projects in 24 countries, and now you can contribute to a water project right within Facebook Messenger. The best part is that 100% of your donations go directly to the water projects, while the operating costs are covered by private donors. 663 million people in the world today don’t have clean drinking water — that’s 663 million too many.
Donate to Charity:Water on Messenger, learn more on their website and leave a review on BotList.
4. Do Not Pay — Fighting Homelessness and more
A bot to help the homeless and evicted fight for housing
“Robin Hood of the internet” is what the BBC calls Joshua Browder. A 19-year-old London-born Stanford student made a splash in the bot ecosystem when his “Do Not Pay” bot helped more than 160,000 people successfully challenge their parking tickets in London and New York City.
Some call Do Not Pay the world’s first robot lawyer. Joshua didn’t stop with parking tickets though. Now Do Not Pay is tackling homelessness in the UK, where tenant eviction notices reached an all-time high this year. Do Not Pay is a truly groundbreaking chatbot that gives assistance and advice to the homeless — it works across the UK now but will expand to other major cities soon.
Talk to Do Not Pay on their website, follow Joshua on Twitter, and leave a review on BotList.
5. GYANT — Health Diagnostics
Health answers, from symptom to solution
Thousands of people in developing countries turn to GYANT everyday to check if they may be sick. This innovative health assistant listens to your symptoms and guides you towards a possible diagnosis — whether it’s zika, something else or nothing at all. It gives you a timely answer and peace of mind.
This health robot gets smarter with every chat, as it makes more connections between symptoms and solutions. Doctors and hospitals are not be available 24x7, but GYANT sure is — and besides English, it’s available in Spanish, Portuguese and German.
Say hi to GYANT on Messenger, learn more on their website and leave a review on BotList.
These are just a few of the bots that inspire us by changing the world for good. If you know of other chatbots that are making the world a better place, please let us know in the comments below.
Guest Post: This story was written by Amrit for BotList, an App Store for Bots.
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