Kathmandu, May 8 -- "When you talk to me, please be a bit happier. Why are you so formal? Can you laugh a little? Can you smile?"

"Can you speak with a bit of a smile? Or do your emotions always stay the same?"

"Just laugh properly once, let me hear how it sounds. I want to hear you smile."

These were repeated requests made by senior journalist and author Vijay Kumar Pandey to an AI chatbot. Two weeks ago, he published a 44-minute video on his YouTube channel featuring a two-way conversation with a chatbot he named "Maya".

Having interviewed people for four decades, Pandey said during the exchange that speaking to a machine felt somewhat awkward. His experiment reflects a growing reality: people are becoming more accustomed to speakin...