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Hello and welcome to Six Minute English, I'm Rob and I'm Dan.
Hey Dan, what's the time?
Time you got a new watch?
Now I didn't ask you that just for a joke or a sarcastic comment, now did I?
Well, no, but look there's a clock over there and you are wearing a watch.
You have a smartphone and a computer, all of which show the time, so why are you asking me?
Oh Dan, I was trying to introduce today's topic, which is all about virtual assistants or bots you seem to have forgotten the script.
Oh yeah, sorry.
We're talking about software that you talk to and that can talk back to you.
Like Apple's Siri, Google's assistant, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana.
It might be on your phone or computer or even a speaker in your house.
Hmm, now before we hear more about this topic, here is today's quiz question.
Do you know when was the first computer which could recognize speech launched?
Was it in a 1951, b 1961 or c 1971?
Oh, I found my script, so I've seen the answer, but I have to say I was surprised.
Okay, don't tell anybody, Dan, okay?
We'll give the answer for the listeners at the end of the program.
We're going to hear now from Tom Hewittson, who is a conversation designer working in the field of virtual assistants, talking on BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth program.