According to news reports, Google is well on its way to building a “digital assistant” that can actually have a meaningful and useful conversation with humans. It earned a decent C grade (79%) on something Google calls the Sensibleness and Specificity Average.  That’s certainly a potential boon for online retail, especially if it’s better at listening than we humans.  However, given that AI systems are taught with human data to behave like humans, I’m not confident they’ll be any better at communication than the blocks of stone we call Representatives and Senators. #TheBookCirca2118, #AI