So I gave the website's customer service chat bot a new name and a much-needed brain upgrade.

Meet LZARS: the Learning Zone Automated Response System. New training. New face. Same attitude.

Over the past year, I've been quietly building a much larger knowledge base from the customer service questions people ask me every day. I use it locally all the time, but the website version had fallen behind. I've now updated it with the same training data, so it should do a much better job answering questions about memberships, billing, customer service, and the website itself.

Bonus points if you recognize where the name LZARS came from. :)

Right now, LZARS knows the website, customer service policies, memberships, and has a general understanding of Microsoft Access and other computer topics. It can answer basic technical questions, but it's not yet smart enough to know exactly which lesson covers a particular topic. That's the next project.

I'm also working on giving LZARS limited access to customer account information so it can answer questions like, "Is my Gold membership still active?" or "Do I own the SQL Server seminar?" without needing me to look it up manually. That will make it much more useful while still keeping your account information secure.

Go ahead and give LZARS a try. Ask it a few questions, see if you can stump it, and let me know how it does. Just remember, it's still learning. If it says something goofy, blame the Klingons. Or Tribbles.

LLAP
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