Nabiha: An Arabic Dialect Chatbot

Nowadays, we are living in the era of technology and innovation that impact various fields, including sciences. In computing and technology, many outstanding and attractive programs and applications have emerged, including programs that try to mimic the human behavior. A chatbot is an example of the artificial intelligence-based computer programs that try to simulate the human behavior by conducting a conversation and an interaction with the users using natural language. Over the years, various chatbots have been developed for many languages (such as English, Spanish, and French) to serve many fields (such as entertainment, medicine, education, and commerce). Unfortunately, Arabic chatbots are rare. To our knowledge, there is no previous work on developing a chatbot for the Saudi Arabic dialect. In this study, we have developed “Nabiha,” a chatbot that can support conversation with Information Technology (IT) students at King Saud University using the Saudi Arabic dialect. Therefore, Nabiha will be the first Saudi chatbot that uses the Saudi dialect. To facilitate access to Nabiha, we have made it available on different platforms: Android, Twitter, and Web. When a student wants to talk with Nabiha, she can download an application, talk with her on Twitter, or visit her website. Nabiha was tested by the students of the IT department, and the results were somewhat satisfactory, considering the difficulty of the Arabic language in general and the Saudi dialect in particular.