:00:00. > :00:09.This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.
:00:10. > :00:15.Facebook launches chat-bots for its popular Messenger app,
:00:16. > :00:17.proving artificial intelligence is making its way
:00:18. > :00:42.Live from London, that's our top story on Wednesday, 13th April.
:00:43. > :00:47.Like them or love them, the robots are coming.
:00:48. > :00:59.At Facebook's annual developers conference, boss Mark Zuckerberg has
:01:00. > :01:05.Tesco's returns to profit. What has the boss got to say about that? We
:01:06. > :01:09.have spoken to Dave Lewis. Plus we will tell you all the you need to
:01:10. > :01:16.about financial markets, in Europe, they are really, really bullish, but
:01:17. > :01:23.why? We will fill you in. Advertising at 40,000 feet, we will
:01:24. > :01:28.meet the man behind the in-flight magazines and movies cashing in on a
:01:29. > :01:31.captive audience. We will find out what the most played film is on a
:01:32. > :01:36.plane? It is not what you think. Would you trust talking to a
:01:37. > :01:37.computer to get things done or would you prefer the human touch? Let us
:01:38. > :01:47.know. Use the hashtag. Facebook has been holding
:01:48. > :01:53.its annual developers The idea is to show off new products
:01:54. > :02:02.the social network believes will be This year, the company
:02:03. > :02:09.has unveiled chat bots It's a form of artificial
:02:10. > :02:16.intelligence which Facebook hopes will create a more interactive
:02:17. > :02:18.experience within the messaging app, such as giving users
:02:19. > :02:20.the ability to shop, Chatbots learn from data sets
:02:21. > :02:26.so they can mimic the way Many big companies are
:02:27. > :02:30.already using virtual assistants on their websites
:02:31. > :02:32.because they are cheaper And some studies suggest people
:02:33. > :02:38.prefer dealing with bots on websites According to research firm Gartner,
:02:39. > :02:50.up to 85% of customer service Dave Lee is at the Facebook
:02:51. > :03:07.developers conference for us. Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook's
:03:08. > :03:12.ten year plan. The soaks network is the biggest in the world with 1.6
:03:13. > :03:17.billion users, but the sites ambitions go further than that.
:03:18. > :03:21.First on the agenda was Facebook Live which has attracted millions
:03:22. > :03:27.upon millions of views. Also Facebook is going to start rolling
:03:28. > :03:30.out chatbots, these are artificially intelligent robots that can talk to
:03:31. > :03:35.humans as if they are our friends! It gives us a new way, Facebook,
:03:36. > :03:40.hopes that we will interact with businesses. It is not all going
:03:41. > :03:43.swimmingly for Facebook. A study suggested that people are sharing
:03:44. > :03:47.less personal information on the network and saving that kind of
:03:48. > :03:59.content for other services like Snapchat.
:04:00. > :04:11.Alex Wood is with what. -- Alex Wood is with me. What is a bot? I liken
:04:12. > :04:16.it to sometimes when you have been o website and the little windows pop
:04:17. > :04:21.up and you can talk to a person, but there is no person at the other end,
:04:22. > :04:25.it is automated. Is there scepticism about how these work? You will get
:04:26. > :04:28.the same automated response, it is looking for odd words that you are
:04:29. > :04:31.asking for help, perhaps your bill or something and you are going to
:04:32. > :04:36.get stock phrases back. Is technology at the point where it can
:04:37. > :04:40.get beyond stock phrases? The key thing to understand is machine
:04:41. > :04:43.learning. So Facebook's announcement today is about showing the system
:04:44. > :04:46.can actually continue to learn and the more that people use it, it
:04:47. > :04:50.learns more about natural conversation and actually builds its
:04:51. > :04:57.knowledge base up so it can only get better the more people use it. Now,
:04:58. > :05:00.you told me you use chatbot for an artificial intelligence PA, how does
:05:01. > :05:04.it work and do you trust it entirely to plan your life? We have been
:05:05. > :05:09.testing it out at the office for the last couple of weeks, we have Amy or
:05:10. > :05:13.Andrew for your personal aye cystant and it is for the times you want to
:05:14. > :05:18.book a meeting and you know with the client, you have got back and forth,
:05:19. > :05:22.I am available this time and that time. Amy pretends to be a human
:05:23. > :05:29.being and has the conversation back and forth on you are behalf with the
:05:30. > :05:33.client and sets-up the meeting. AIM even picks up things like I know you
:05:34. > :05:38.met Alex a couple of weeks ago, you met at Starbucks, do you want to
:05:39. > :05:43.meet there again? It is incredibly human. I find that terrifying, but
:05:44. > :05:48.that's just me. Let's talk about Facebook as part of the Messenger
:05:49. > :05:51.app. A lot of controversy at the time, but that's starting to make
:05:52. > :05:54.sense now and they are throwing resources, throwing the efforts into
:05:55. > :05:57.the Messenger app to allow the Messenger app to allow
:05:58. > :06:02.developers to develop bots? A couple of years ago when they made that
:06:03. > :06:06.split, a lot of people were surprised, they thought why would
:06:07. > :06:10.you do that? It was annoying from a user's prospective, but it was a
:06:11. > :06:13.clever move, but I think I have some concerns there as well because let's
:06:14. > :06:17.take a step back and remember that all the chat bots and the system
:06:18. > :06:24.that Facebook is building, it is about doing it in fab's world. It is
:06:25. > :06:28.not very open. So I think there is concerns there that we have to think
:06:29. > :06:37.about. One we will watch closely, Alex, thank you very much. Good luck
:06:38. > :06:41.with your artificial intelligence PA!
:06:42. > :06:43.The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth
:06:44. > :06:45.forecasts for the second time in just three months.
:06:46. > :06:47.The IMF says it expects growth for the world
:06:48. > :06:50.economy to slow to 3.2%, down from the 3.4% it
:06:51. > :06:56.China's slowdown and weak commodity prices are being blamed,
:06:57. > :07:02.as well as the risk of geopolitical shocks.
:07:03. > :07:04.China's online retail giant Alibaba is making a move
:07:05. > :07:12.It has agreed to buy a controlling stake in online retailer Lazada
:07:13. > :07:15.for about $1 billion to expand its e-commerce business.
:07:16. > :07:17.Lazada is headquartered in Singapore and also operates in Malaysia,
:07:18. > :07:23.Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
:07:24. > :07:25.UK supermarket giant, Tesco, has returned to profit
:07:26. > :07:32.after reporting its first quarterly sales growth for three years.
:07:33. > :07:35.Pre-tax profits for the year came in at ?162 million
:07:36. > :07:43.with like-for-like sales up 0.9% in the fourth quarter.
:07:44. > :07:45.The results follow last year's ?6.3 billion loss, the worst
:07:46. > :07:48.Earlier Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis, spoke to us,
:07:49. > :07:51.and explained how these figures are not just a flash in the pan,
:07:52. > :08:04.It is the culmination of a series of deliberate things that myself and
:08:05. > :08:08.the team have done over the year. It is not just here in the UK, it is in
:08:09. > :08:11.our businesses internationally and in fact, all of our businesses are
:08:12. > :08:15.showing positive momentum all the way through the year. So it is not a
:08:16. > :08:19.flash in the pan. It is broad based and it is significant against to
:08:20. > :08:24.your own admission where we started from 16 months ago.
:08:25. > :08:27.Dave Lewis, the boss of Tesco. We were having this conversation
:08:28. > :08:30.globally where is the Tesco, moving up and down the ladder of the
:08:31. > :08:39.world's biggest? It is around about number five. Wal-Mart is right at
:08:40. > :08:46.the top. Costco is um there. -- up there.
:08:47. > :08:51.Tesco as we have said and you heard there, seeing a rise in sales, but
:08:52. > :08:54.that march of the discounters including Aldi and Lidl eating into
:08:55. > :08:59.market share, but we should point out they are a still small part of
:09:00. > :09:00.the market. Tesco, remember, controlling about 28% of the UK
:09:01. > :09:05.market. Focus is on China this week
:09:06. > :09:07.with it's latest growth But today we've had
:09:08. > :09:15.an update on exports - they grew faster than expected
:09:16. > :09:18.in March - by nearly 19%. Leisha Chi has the details from our
:09:19. > :09:26.Asia Business Hub in Singapore. There are hopes the economy might
:09:27. > :09:33.have turned a corner. Japan's Nikkei up nearly 3% and Australia up 2% and
:09:34. > :09:37.the Hang Seng up 2.4% because export ins China rose in March for the
:09:38. > :09:42.first time in nine months. They jumped by 11.5% year-on-year while
:09:43. > :09:53.imports fell by 7.6% and this is better than economists forecast. No
:09:54. > :09:57.what dot numbers mean? It shows that the manufacturing sector is picking
:09:58. > :10:02.up amid a prolonged slowdown, but analysts say that the data was
:10:03. > :10:06.actually affected by seasonal factors and that it maybe too soon
:10:07. > :10:10.to say the worst is over. So we have to keep a close eye on the GDP
:10:11. > :10:14.numbers out on Friday, but the expectation is it will show that the
:10:15. > :10:21.economy expanded by 6.7% in the first quarter.
:10:22. > :10:26.Thank you so much. A lot of focus on China. The other
:10:27. > :10:30.reasons for a strong session in Asia, the night before on Wall
:10:31. > :10:33.Street we saw strong gains in the United States and the oil price
:10:34. > :10:37.remaining around about $44 a barrel. We will talk about that in more
:10:38. > :10:42.detail in a few minutes time and are looking ahead to the oil meeting in
:10:43. > :10:49.Doha on Sunday. Let's look at Europe. We are into the trading day
:10:50. > :10:52.by 40 minutes. At the open, Tesco shares opened lower despite the good
:10:53. > :10:56.news from the retailer and the bullish comments from Dave Lewis,
:10:57. > :10:58.not helping its share price today. More focus on the cautious outlook
:10:59. > :11:01.for Tesco. Will it last? And Mariko Oi has the details about
:11:02. > :11:10.what's ahead on Wall Street Today. Well, Wall Street will be pouring
:11:11. > :11:15.over more IMF wisdom on Wednesday. This time in the shape of its global
:11:16. > :11:20.financial stability and investors don't need the IMF to tell them that
:11:21. > :11:24.it has been a volatile six months since the last report came out, but
:11:25. > :11:29.they will be keen to hear what the fund thinks can be done to guard
:11:30. > :11:32.against a plummeting oil price and difficulties with China's economic
:11:33. > :11:36.transformation. Closer to home, investors will get their first look
:11:37. > :11:41.at how Wall Street's biggest banks have been doing in the past few
:11:42. > :11:45.months. Biggest of them all JP Morgan puts out its earnings before
:11:46. > :11:48.the market opens and it is expected to reveal grim losses in its
:11:49. > :11:52.investment banking business and on many of its loans to the energy
:11:53. > :12:04.sector. If the company makes a profit, it will likely be thanks to
:12:05. > :12:08.its cost-cutting efforts. Join Foley is with us. We heard from
:12:09. > :12:15.Singapore about the implications for the rest of the world, here in the
:12:16. > :12:18.UK, it is mine they'res will do very well? The implication from the
:12:19. > :12:21.figures is manufacturing perhaps in China is getting some momentum back
:12:22. > :12:25.again and of course, if you think about the things that China
:12:26. > :12:29.produces, well, half the world's steel for instance. So steel, what
:12:30. > :12:35.goes into that, iron ore and of course, coal and miners benefit on
:12:36. > :12:38.the back of that. So we have seen some commodities generally this week
:12:39. > :12:44.go higher, oil prices are higher recently too. So miners certainly
:12:45. > :12:49.finding some support, but of course, we do know that some of the steel
:12:50. > :12:53.that's been used by China has been used by recycled scrap steel and
:12:54. > :12:59.that, of course, isn't good news or miners. Looking at oil down today 1%
:13:00. > :13:03.plus around $43 a barrel, but that's really high, isn't it? 13% higher so
:13:04. > :13:08.far this year. Energy stocks really enjoying the moment? They really
:13:09. > :13:11.are, of course, we have the really crucial meeting in Doha and many
:13:12. > :13:12.people are sceptical as to whether or not, A, there will be
:13:13. > :13:17.a production freeze and B, whether or not that is going to sort out the
:13:18. > :13:20.supply glut because although there has been news from the US that we
:13:21. > :13:25.have less rigs in operation and that's been going on for the past 16
:13:26. > :13:29.weeks, we still have a huge amount of supply in oil which could mean
:13:30. > :13:42.that the rally that we have seen is capped.
:13:43. > :13:54.We will meeting the man behind the agency cashing in on in-flight
:13:55. > :14:01.magazines and entertainment. More on the news from Tesco? Like
:14:02. > :14:07.for like sales up 0.9%. Sales are still down over the year as a whole.
:14:08. > :14:11.The supermarket has shaken off its annual loss. It saw a pre-tax profit
:14:12. > :14:17.of ?162 million for the year to February. Let's delve into the
:14:18. > :14:21.numbers with Nick Hood. Nick, good morning. Some evidence, it seems, in
:14:22. > :14:24.this set of figures that the supermarket is finally turning a
:14:25. > :14:29.corner. Well, it is a good start, but there is a long way to go and
:14:30. > :14:33.you have got to remember with all of these major turn around exercises,
:14:34. > :14:39.you get easy wins early. I think it will be much more interesting to see
:14:40. > :14:43.where this particular supertanker retail supertanker is in another 12
:14:44. > :14:48.months, another 18 months. It is a really tough market out there and
:14:49. > :14:53.the latest sales figures show that they are still losing market share
:14:54. > :14:57.to the discounters at Aldi and Lidl, but not as quickly as they were
:14:58. > :15:00.before. It is good news though, isn't it for Dave Lewis who is
:15:01. > :15:06.fairly new in the job and shortly after his arrival, there was that
:15:07. > :15:10.whole accountancy scandal and also all sorts of problems. He says the
:15:11. > :15:15.turn around is about management actions. He has stabilise the
:15:16. > :15:18.business, would you agree? I think he is doing very well, but what you
:15:19. > :15:23.have got to remember, this is in the UK in particular, a business that
:15:24. > :15:28.employs 310,000 people and what he needs as well as management action
:15:29. > :15:32.is culture change and that's a really tough act to pull off across
:15:33. > :15:38.so many people. I think everybody wishes him the best of luck with it.
:15:39. > :15:43.It is a long-term thing to do to be fair, isn't it? Shares down sharply
:15:44. > :15:48.today. Why is that? The trouble is the headline figures that came out
:15:49. > :15:53.were about the top line. The sales growth which at 0.9% in Q4
:15:54. > :15:59.impressive, but look at the bottom line. ?70 billion worth of sales and
:16:00. > :16:06.just a squeak of a profit at ?162 million.
:16:07. > :16:11.What the market is asking is whether the UK core business can actually
:16:12. > :16:17.make money in such a tough and as he said challenging the deflationary
:16:18. > :16:25.market. Thanks for explaining that. Any moored details you may need are
:16:26. > :16:31.on the Live page. That is the place to find full analysis.
:16:32. > :16:39.You are watching Businessmen recovered alive. Our top story
:16:40. > :16:47.today, your new best friend is a chatbot, apparently. Facebook could
:16:48. > :16:51.introduce artificial intelligence, if Mark Zuckerberg gets his way. We
:16:52. > :16:56.will hear from him a bit later. It's quite interesting, what he had to
:16:57. > :16:59.say. Let's move on. When you're on a plane no doubt you flick through the
:17:00. > :17:02.in-flight magazine and channel hop on the television and the chances
:17:03. > :17:14.are it's been made by our next guest. He is the boss of Spafax,
:17:15. > :17:18.where he has been for over 20 years. It is the company behind some of the
:17:19. > :17:20.magazines in your in aeroplane seat pocket and the in-flight
:17:21. > :17:30.entertainment you see during the flight. Spafax has been owned by the
:17:31. > :17:35.media conglomerate WPP for over 15 years. It publishes over 30
:17:36. > :17:46.magazines in 15 languages around the world. Let's chat to Neill now. It's
:17:47. > :17:50.such an interesting area. You have a captive audience, people stuck on a
:17:51. > :17:56.metal tube for eight or 12 hours, long haul flights. You can sell it
:17:57. > :18:01.to them in that time. This must be a brief opportunity for you and one
:18:02. > :18:06.that you clearly cash in on. It is a fantastic opportunity but first of
:18:07. > :18:13.all it is a service environment. You have a relationship with them and
:18:14. > :18:18.it's about helping them pass the time with movies and entertainment,
:18:19. > :18:24.but mainly brands like Bacardi, Jaguar, they recognise the value of
:18:25. > :18:28.that audience. All business requires travel, essentially everybody is
:18:29. > :18:33.travelling through our niche if you like. Those brands, as you
:18:34. > :18:36.mentioned, recognise the fact that this audience is captive and also
:18:37. > :18:40.there is a trolley coming down the middle aisle selling the stuff
:18:41. > :18:44.you're looking at in the in-flight magazine, all of it is sold at the
:18:45. > :18:52.airport you arrive at. It's kind of a win-win for the seller, isn't it?
:18:53. > :18:56.It is. The audience is also high net worth individuals and it's difficult
:18:57. > :19:04.to convince yourself to get the selling... The children are nagging
:19:05. > :19:06.the parents! But you do hear of extraordinary sampling opportunities
:19:07. > :19:11.where people literally give away their latest new technology, things
:19:12. > :19:15.like product launches. It's a fantastic opportunity to test it
:19:16. > :19:18.with that key audience. The fact you are talking about that lucrative
:19:19. > :19:24.market, you said business travellers represent the most discerning
:19:25. > :19:28.customer segment on earth, that is a bold claim but one that is clearly
:19:29. > :19:32.working in your favour. I think so. They're no different to everyone
:19:33. > :19:38.else, they watch the same TV shows and do the same things. TV is your
:19:39. > :19:41.background. Before you join this organisation you work for BSkyB, you
:19:42. > :19:45.work for television production companies as well. When it comes to
:19:46. > :19:49.that in-flight entertainment, how do you decide what is on offer? Because
:19:50. > :19:57.people often moan about what there was, what there wasn't. Random
:19:58. > :20:00.episodes... We just had a come as Asian before we came on air and my
:20:01. > :20:05.biggest bugbear is that you sit down and you want to watch a series of
:20:06. > :20:10.something and it is episode three, season four. You have none of the
:20:11. > :20:14.stuff that came before or after, but that is a licensing issue, isn't it?
:20:15. > :20:19.We are very lucky, we buy products from everyone and we have a crack
:20:20. > :20:29.team in offices around the world is going to will the convention than
:20:30. > :20:33.meeting all the distributors. We have some of our clients... It is a
:20:34. > :20:38.case of trying to understand the audiences. TV is going through a
:20:39. > :20:48.global, a lot of the popular shows are popular shows. House of Cards,
:20:49. > :20:53.The Big Bang double theory. But we are having to find the emerging
:20:54. > :20:58.markets as well in Korea and elsewhere. The expectations of
:20:59. > :21:04.people on planes now is changing. If you have been a nice plain with nice
:21:05. > :21:09.facilities and then you get an older plane, it is very jarring. I imagine
:21:10. > :21:15.the demands of passengers are harder to fulfil because it is ratcheting
:21:16. > :21:19.up all the time. It is also the technology in people's hands. We are
:21:20. > :21:22.very focused on personalisation in the future and the technology in our
:21:23. > :21:26.hands allows us to connect with people even when there isn't a
:21:27. > :21:30.system on board. Now they are launching satellites with high
:21:31. > :21:39.bandwidth capacity, putting wireless servers on planes. What about an
:21:40. > :21:46.in-flight chatbot, would you have one of those? I hope so! Ireland
:21:47. > :21:52.were watching two chatbots having an argument on the Internet, very
:21:53. > :21:56.amusing! -- I member watching. Thank you, it has been fascinating. If
:21:57. > :22:00.you're watching us and 40,000 feet, let us know when you land or send as
:22:01. > :22:07.a message. In a moment we will look through the business pages. First
:22:08. > :22:11.this morning, we've talked about Facebook and the tech giant's views
:22:12. > :22:14.on artificial intelligence. According to the founder, Mark
:22:15. > :22:18.Zuckerberg he's going to change the world.
:22:19. > :22:25.To say that we can build something and make it better than it has ever
:22:26. > :22:29.been before. You have to be optimistic to think that you can
:22:30. > :22:35.change the world. And people will always call you naive. But it's this
:22:36. > :22:43.hope and this optimism that is behind every important step forward.
:22:44. > :22:49.Our lives are connected. And whether we are welcoming a refugee fleeing
:22:50. > :22:52.war or an immigrant seeking more opportunity, whether we are coming
:22:53. > :22:58.together to fight global disease like Ebola or defied climate change,
:22:59. > :23:04.I hope that we have the courage to see that the path forward is to
:23:05. > :23:08.bring people together and not push people apart. To connect more, not
:23:09. > :23:12.less. That's why I think the work we're all doing is so important.
:23:13. > :23:18.Because we can actually give more people a voice. Instead of building
:23:19. > :23:22.walls, we can help people build bridges. Mark Zuckerberg, there.
:23:23. > :23:28.Jane is back with us. He's changing the world,
:23:29. > :23:34.Jane. There's a lot of chat about his speech on social media, perfect
:23:35. > :23:38.that... It sounds wonderful, what he's saying sounds great, but if you
:23:39. > :23:44.look in Europe and the moment especially, the reality is that we
:23:45. > :23:47.are building more walls and borders. What he's saying sounds wonderful
:23:48. > :23:51.but the reality, certainly in politics right now, is a lot
:23:52. > :23:56.different. The interesting thing with technology and we saw this with
:23:57. > :24:03.the time at the migrant crisis, when the programme was at its height --
:24:04. > :24:09.the problem was that its height, this is a tendency to spread the
:24:10. > :24:19.message. People are able to find out how to get around using technology.
:24:20. > :24:23.People would redirect and again this is about information flow. Why
:24:24. > :24:29.aren't more migrants coming to the UK? There is a perception that the
:24:30. > :24:36.wages might be higher, the benefits might be better. -- why are more
:24:37. > :24:43.coming to the UK. We have touched on the issue of steel and China earlier
:24:44. > :24:45.and there is an article about this today in the Sydney morning Herald.
:24:46. > :24:53.Talk us through what they are talking about. This is fascinating.
:24:54. > :24:57.It is about iron ore and steel. China is the world's largest
:24:58. > :25:04.producer of steel, it produces about 50% of the world's steel, it uses
:25:05. > :25:14.cold to melt the iron ore. It is now saying that it is now becoming a lot
:25:15. > :25:17.more usable to use scrap. Washing machines and cars are being melted
:25:18. > :25:24.down to provide the iron that is needed. Great for the environment,
:25:25. > :25:29.presumably? This is it because coal is a very dirty fuel. If we're using
:25:30. > :25:34.scrap, the mills we are using to melt down the scraps are run by
:25:35. > :25:37.electricity because we can use cleaner electricity. From an
:25:38. > :25:42.environmental perspective, yes maybe there is an upside there. But for
:25:43. > :25:45.the iron and coal producers, this is bad news. Really interesting given
:25:46. > :25:53.the context of all the steel problems across Europe. Thanks for
:25:54. > :25:56.your contributions. We did not really have time to get the chatbot
:25:57. > :26:09.Twitter conversation in, but there was a lot of it. See you tomorrow.
:26:10. > :26:15.Hello there. Something of a north-south split to today's
:26:16. > :26:18.weather. For most of England and Wales it is a dry, sunny start to
:26:19. > :26:22.the day with a view showers forecast. For Northern Ireland and
:26:23. > :26:23.Scotland we have cloudy