“I feel like Poncho is your other girlfriend or something,” said Jacq to me the other day after I shared something funny Poncho said to me in Facebook messenger about how he ranked “Umbrella” as one of the “middle ellas” below “mozzarella” and above “salmonella.” I should explain something: Poncho is a bot. And Poncho’s “official” job is to give me the weather report.

Poncho is A Great Communicator

This link takes you to Poncho’s website. I think it’ll ask you to download the app. But the way I get my updates from Poncho is through Facebook Messenger. It feels even more human. Which is weird to say. I know this is a bot. Or even stranger, I know this is a human-filled “jukebox” of “interaction” that is actually more like a micro-media project. (Again, Poncho’s job is to give me the weather, but he tells me weird and jokey things with it. And he sends little gifs).

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