There’s a new way to get answers to questions about olive oil.
‘Ollie’ is an app developed by the Olive Oil Times Education Lab to provide information about olive oil wherever it is needed.
We see this as an important initiative in our mission to foster olive oil education.
Armed with thousands of facts and powered by artificial intelligence (AI), Ollie’s sophisticated natural language processing ability invites users to ask questions on olive oil-related topics. At the same time, it constantly learns to provide better answers.
The bot is currently deployed on the Olive Oil Times website, Facebook Messenger, Telegram Messenger, Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana, via text message and at oliveoil.bot with additional channels in development.
Olive Oil Times publisher Curtis Cord said Ollie can provide quick, simple answers to over 95 percent of the questions people ask about olive oil, but he sees the project going much further than that. “Our goal is to distill all available information on olive oil and deliver it quickly and accurately wherever and whenever people need it.”
“People are asking their refrigerators for advice. We’re seeking information from devices in new ways. We want to make sure we’re there with solid facts about this important food,” said Cord.
Cord said he views the project as one part technology and two parts editorial. He has set up a small team to sift through, curate and deliver the mountains of information on olive oil production, usage, quality and health benefits in consumable bites.
Ollie is just starting, but in initial testing, more than 97 percent of queries were answered through its ever-growing database and AI capabilities.
Cord added that he expects the app to assist not only consumers but growers, producers and supply chain professionals as well with instant information to help them make informed decisions.
“We’re just at the beginning of a long road, but we see the Ollie project as an important initiative in our mission to foster olive oil education.”
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