A manual for an appliance or new piece of equipment is supposed to be designed for as many human logic lines as possible. If the logic line is there then the user will be able to follow the instructs and work the equipment.

The human mind is wide and varied in it's capacity to show what is a logical and normal thought process. I suggest that if a user converses with a chat bot then the A.I. can best model the thought process and tailor make the manual to suit. There would probably be some preprogrammed psychological types, with key identifiers, to speed up modeling.

Manuchat could have a database of similes and equivalents on terms to convey the instructions in the users own grammar. Ultimately A then B then C if D gives X is simple programming wise but blows out to a very large tree when where, what and how definitions are placed on A, B, C and D. I think a chat bot would be a nice tool to generate this tree for the user. Diagram styles could also be selected as part of the modeling process.

The bot could be web based so manufacturers could have more info on their designs and usability.
-- wjt, Mar 15 2015

/The human mind is wide and varied in it's capacity to show what is a logical and normal thought process./

Indeed... That is what they taught us in Chat Robot Training school. So how are the wife and kids ?
-- popbottle, Mar 16 2015


//human logic lines//

For some reason, I'm picturing someone snorting these.
-- pertinax, Mar 16 2015


This idea made me think of eddie trying to teach someone to make a cup of tea.
-- wjt, Mar 17 2015


What if the user is female ?
-- 8th of 7, Mar 17 2015


wjt it would help me to visualize if you would post an example of an exchange with the chatbot. Manuchat can use American Rural Upper Midwest grammar to bring it home for me.
-- bungston, Mar 17 2015


//What if the user is female ?//

[8th], I'm sure I've warned you before about these misogenystic comments. If you're trying to suggest in some way that the little ladies are incapable of dealing with a highly technical user manual, I would ask you to remember that many - if not some - women are more than sufficiently intelligent to get a man to help them.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 17 2015


By the time you turn this into specifications for a program you'll realize you need strong AI to make it work. Magic [-]
-- Voice, Mar 17 2015


Chat bots are quite advanced. Manuchat probably would be built bottom up rather than top down. If your take the manual steps and used a computer to build as many simile statements of those steps then one would, hopefully, be the sentence necessary for the user's prescription.

The way the user greeted an habitual 'hello' would set the start of the conversation and differentiate stereotypes, for example the Rural Upper Midwest. The more conversation, the more simple clues the computer can glean and the closer the procedure can be correctly stated.

All that a chat bot is is pattern matching, this is just that.
-- wjt, Mar 19 2015


So if I were to say "Howdy" (perhaps with jocular intent) it will automatically assume I'm a rube?
-- Spacecoyote, Mar 19 2015


You wouldn't need to say anything, just looking at you is enough ...
-- 8th of 7, Mar 19 2015


"And how does 'THIS STUPID THING IS BROKE' make you feel?"
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 19 2015


"manuchat" sounds like some sort of gay telephone dating service.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 19 2015


That's what I thought this was, Max.
-- 21 Quest, Mar 20 2015


// 'THIS STUPID THING IS BROKE' make you feel? //

"At Generic Appliance we are very, very sad our product wasn't fit for your purpose but before we send you another, have you plugged it in ?"
-- wjt, Mar 21 2015



random, halfbakery