

Luka: A.I. recommending restaurants in a chat interface - kuyda
https://luka.ai

======
dajohnson89
I had to download the app and launch it, only to find out that it only serves
the SF/Bay Area. I don't live there. And even if I did, it seemed to require a
Facebook login. Which I don't have.

------
eastbayjake
This was fun to play with. It suggested an Indian restaurant so I tried saying
"I don't like Indian food" and it followed up about whether I don't like it or
I'm just not in the mood now. After suggesting another restaurant it correctly
understood "Can you suggest something cheaper?" and returned a <$10 option.
The "tell me more" option left a bit to be desired -- Luka just said "It's a
good place."

Looking forward to when Luka "learns" about Oakland restaurants!

~~~
kuyda
Thanks for your feedback - we're improving our restaurant data now (it's all
being collected automatically). Oakland is next to come - we'll keep you
updated!

------
rdoherty
Why a downloadable app exclusively? Would love to not have to install it to
try it out.

------
mkorfmann
While I kind of participated in the current AI/.ai hype, I'm starting to get
really sick of hearing about another new application which "talks to you in
natural language" or makes "Websites That Design Themselves".

The truth is, where not there yet and these people try to make one believe we
are.

Sure, some may argue that these applications are indeed kind of intelligent
and thus can be called A.I., but by this definition even Amazons
recommendation algorithm is A.I.

I'm pretty sure that applications which "talk to you in natural language" or
make "Websites That Design Themselves" are appealing to some at the moment but
I doubt they will be successful in the long run.

~~~
deet
Just using a ".ai" domain doesn't mean that the company is claiming the
product is true AI.

I don't see any such claim on the marketing site or the App Store page.

Not sure where the title here on HN came from.

Edit: typo, mention of HN title

~~~
kuyda
How would you call it then? It's an app that mimics a friend that knows a lot
about restaurants - I believe that can be called AI. However we used AI in the
title just to make it easier to understand what we do. We sometimes just say
it's a mobile app that gives you restaurant recommendations in a chat
interface.

~~~
petercooper
Things like this would more formally be called 'agents', software agents, or
intelligent personal assistants (which are a type of agent).

However, I think AI is perfectly acceptable in common usage nowadays. Some
people will just get caught up with the 'formal' definition, but the media
and, increasingly, consumers are just using the term "AI" now anyway.

------
nicolasehrhardt
Just curious about your data sources, could you tell us what you are basing
your recommendation on? Are you using review sites (Facebook, Google, Yelp) or
is it something completely different?

~~~
kuyda
We use more than 15 different data sources - mainly user reviews (Yelp,
4Square, TripAdvisor), blogs and professional media (SF Gate, Eater etc) and
guidebooks (Michelin, Zagat etc). All data is collected automatically and then
plugged into our data model. We extract entities and make sentiment analysis
to learn what this place is good for exactly and to show relevant quotes. As
people share much more in a conversation than they would on sites like Yelp
matching our users' preferences with the restaurant data makes our
recommendations more relevant and personalised.

------
eridal
at a glance seems so similar to the "magic" app that I can certainly think of
this "natural talk chat" as some next trend for apps

is this going over sms?

~~~
karmacondon
Too bad they didn't get the memo about the magic concept. The video is cute,
but no way I'm installing this app without being able to try it first somehow.

~~~
kuyda
SMS is going to be our next step - we started with texting in Russia actually.
Our own app however let's us get a better UX for the users. Thanks for the
tip!

~~~
deftnerd
Your next step should be making it available through Slack in some way. Lots
of teams would love to be able to figure out where to eat by typing /lunch and
then all the team members can chime in with any restrictions.

------
ars
Do you handle dietary restrictions?

Kosher, Halal, Vegan, Vegetarian, etc?

~~~
kuyda
we do and we recommend places based on your diet!

------
missingjdubb
What does your software stack look like?

------
rbcoffee
Is it Turing complete?

~~~
Buge
Are you referring to Turing completeness as in computational capability, or
are you referring to the Turing test?

------
jgalt212
Another year, another foursquare pivot.

