As 2017 comes to a close and 2018 is just around the corner, why don't we take a stab at AI?

TensorFlow and Deep Learning emphasize programming and experimentation. Geoscientists can make a real difference in designing how we interact with machine – AI front end.

As an example, imagine you can “talk” to Echo back and forth and ask Alexa about a particular basin. We use Amazon Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and role play with “Basin Bot” as follows:

You: “Alexa start Basin Bot”
Alexa: “Welcome. I'm your smart basin bot. I'm going to say four basins for you to choose. Ready?”
You: “yes please”
Alexa: “Which is your basin, among Bakken, Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Permian?”
You: “Permian”
Alexa: “Good choice. Your basin pick is Permian.”

Next, let’s look under the hood on how to accomplish this. Three files and a program are required. Here we focus on the three English like files: 1) template file spells the dialog between you and Alexa, 2) intent file represents an action that fulfills a user’s spoken request, 3) utterance file defines a set of likely spoken phrases mapped to the intents. The program can be coded in Python or JavaScript (for our purpose, we'd skip this).

1) Templates (e.g., templates.yaml)

welcome_to_basin_bot: Welcome. I'm your smart basin bot. I'm going to say four basins for you to choose. Ready?
basin_pick: Which is your basin, among {{ basins|join(", ") }}?
yes_pick: Good choice. Your basin pick is {{ my_pick }}.
no_pick: Sorry, {{ my_pick }} is not in our database.

2) Intent (cut and paste directly into Intent Schema in Alexa Skills Set)

{
"intents": [
{
"intent": "YesIntent"
},
{
"intent": "AnswerIntent",
"slots": [
{
"name": "my_pick",
"type": "LIST_OF_BASINS"
}
]
}
]
}

Cut and paste directly into Custom Slot Types in Alexa Skills Set
LIST_OF_BASINS Bakken | Eagleford | Marcellus | Permian

3) Utterance (cut and paste directly into Utterances in Alexa Skills Set)
WhatsMyBasinIntent yes
WhatsMyBasinIntent yup
WhatsMyBasinIntent sure
WhatsMyBasinIntent yes please
MyBasinIsIntent my favorite basin is { my_pick }
MyBasinIsIntent my basin is { my_pick }
MyBasinIsIntent { my_pick }

Saying something else may get Alexa response like “Sorry I don’t understand. Please try again.”

Summary

Here we have demystified one aspect of AI – conducting a dialog with machine. This Amazon ASK setup can be extended and modified to call other programmed modules to perform specific analysis or invoke Deep Learning apps.

Getting Started links -
https://developer.amazon....lexa-skills-kit.html
https://developer.amazon....Build-a-How-To-Skill