I.M. Can't Keep It Real.

In the instant-messaging boom, big business wants to use chatty new robots to be your buddy

Many instant-messaging fans around the world have been adding an especially peculiar new name to their buddy lists: GooglyMinotaur.

This buddy--let s call him Googly for short--can chat endlessly about his favorite music, and he never seems to tire of answering questions. Say hello to Googly, and he replies cheerfully and quickly: "I'm your instant source for all things Radiohead" (see "Slinging Slang at a Fake Buddy," opposite page).

You might assume that Googly is a groupie with too much time on his hands. But Googly isn't a person. It's an instant messaging robot, or bot, introduced by Radiohead's label, Capitol Records, to provide information-on-request about the band members, their concerts, and albums. Named after a worried-looking monster on the band's Amnesiac CD cover, Googly regurgitates preprogrammed responses to about 5,000 questions, seeming to mimic artificial intelligence.

"It's a really cool idea," says Shelby Powell, a 13-year-old in Palm Bay, Florida, who already has 92 real people on his buddy list.

Capitol Records is one of a growing number of businesses that are popping up in the usually private arena of instant messaging, where computer conversations can be immediate and even invasive. Close to 100 million people now use I.M. software, including 54 percent of all 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States. That untapped market is all but impossible for businesses to ignore.

FAO Schwarz, the toy store, is using a buddy named ShopFAO that can provide customer service. Vans, the sports shoe and apparel company, may install an I.M. alert system to tell people about upcoming skateboard tours that it sponsors.

Even AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), which first introduced I.M. to the mainstream in 1997, is morphing into a more commercial tool. In the beta version of AIM 4.7, users are greeted by an "AIM Today" window that acts like the general AOL welcome screen, promoting links to Web sites on fitness, entertainment, and sports.

PROTECTING YOUR SPACE

"This could become very powerful," says Peter Levitan, chief executive of ActiveBuddy, the company that designed the Radiohead bot. Imagine an I.M. system, he says, "that would tell you exactly when tickets have gone on sale for the next concert."

But avid teen users have a warning for companies that are itching to hawk products through instant messages: This party is by invitation only.

"I don't like things popping up on my screen," says Jennifer Prince, a 19-year-old student at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. "If you were in the middle of an I.M. conversation and got a message from a company, that would be really annoying."

So far, commercial buddies like Googly and ShopFAO aren't forced upon you. I.M. users can choose to contact them or add them to their buddy lists. Unless the fake buddies receive a message from you, they remain mute.

What worries fans of instant messaging, however, is the potential for intrusion by other means. Once they converse with a company through instant messages, that company has the ability to capture their I.M. names--the equivalent of harvesting e-mail addresses. Some users point to ICQ, one of the earliest instant-messaging programs, as an example. The service, they say, has become plagued with unsolicited and often pornographic messages.

Levitan of ActiveBuddy has a name for those intrusions: "spim," a word derived from the term for junk e-mail, "spam."

He says he will be vigilant in keeping the I.M. space "consumer friendly"--his bots will only speak when they're spoken to.

BUDDIES FOR EVERYBODY

In the meantime, ActiveBuddy is in the process of developing a movie buddy, a financial buddy, even a baseball buddy that delivers the latest scores whenever asked. People with AOL Instant Messenger can test the technology by adding the company's demonstration robot--called SmarterChild--to their buddy lists.

Diana Bondy, a 14-year-old in Wilton, Connecticut, has asked the bot about which movies are playing in town. And when she's waiting for real friends to reply to her instant messages, SmarterChild can offer up a game of Hangman. "I like it a lot," she says. "It's a big jump in the technology from a few years ago."

There is just one thing missing. "I wish," Diana says, "that it could help with homework."

Who's Doing What

About 13 million teens in the U.S. have used instant messaging.
Here's the breakdown of online teens.

71% of online boys use I.M.
78% of online girls use I.M.

35% use I.M. every day.
21% use I.M. more than an
hour at a time.

90% use I.M. to keep in touch
with their faraway friends and
family members.

37% have I.M.'d something they
wouldn't have said in person.

26% have used it to pretend to
be someone different.

17% have used it to ask
someone out.
13% have used it to break up
with someone.

Source: Teenage Life Online, 2001, Pew Internet and American Life
Project

RELATED ARTICLE: Slinging Slang at a Fake Buddy

The new instant-messaging robots may be long on "artificial," short on "intelligence," We sent I.M. slang to the Radiohead buddy, GooglyMinotaur. It kept responses lowercase and lightly punctuated in true I.M. style, but its one-track mind didn't quite know the code.

Upfront: pmfji [pardon me for jumping in]

GooglyMinotaur: hahahahahaha! pmfji!! that makes me laugh. but i really like to talk about RADIOHEAD. i can tell you a lot about all the songs on amnesiac, try typing "knives out," for example

U: diku [do I know you?]

GM: ? did ... you ... really say what i think you said diku. indeed. what i like talking about most is the greatest band ever to come from oxford, england: RADIOHEAD! you can also get movie showtimes and horoscopes, it's true! just type "innocent pleasures"

U: brb [be right back]

GM: ok. i'll be here

U: a/s/I [age/sex/location?]

GM: .. 15 months ... androgynous ... sunnyvale, ca

U: lshttardml [laughing so hard the tears are running down my leg]

GM: sometimes this world really confuses me. i simply have no idea what to make of "lshttardml." i'd rather talk about RADIOHEAD. type "about phil" to learn all sorts of fascinating things about phil selway

U: ttyl [talk to you later]

GM: ! s'latron [see you later on]