Editing Office Assistant (section)

=== Technology ===
The Office Assistant used technology initially from [[Microsoft Bob]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Watters |first1=Audrey |date=14 September 2016 |title=Clippy and the History of the Future of Educational Chatbots |url=http://hackeducation.com/2016/09/14/chatbot |access-date=2 June 2017 |website=Hacked Education |archive-date=16 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616041542/http://hackeducation.com/2016/09/14/chatbot |url-status=live }}</ref> and later [[Microsoft Agent]], offering advice based on [[Bayesian probability|Bayesian]] algorithms.<ref name="xenon">{{cite web |last1=Swartz |first1=Luke |title=Why People Hate the Paperclip: Labels, Appearance, Behavior and Social Responses to User Interface Agents |url=http://xenon.stanford.edu/~lswartz/paperclip/paperclip.pdf |access-date=2 June 2017 |quote=Popularly known as "Clippy the Paperclip" (the default character, referred to in Microsoft Office itself as "Clippit") |archive-date=12 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170212191858/http://xenon.stanford.edu/~lswartz/paperclip/paperclip.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> From Microsoft Office 2000 onward, Microsoft Agent (.acs) replaced the Microsoft Bob-descended Actor (.act) format as the technology supporting the feature. Microsoft Agent-based characters have richer forms and colors, and are not enclosed within a boxed window. Furthermore, Microsoft Agent characters could use the [[Lernout & Hauspie]] TruVoice Text-to-Speech Engine to provide output speech capabilities, but it required SAPI 4.0. The Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine also allowed Microsoft Agent characters to accept speech input.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bell |first=Gordon Scott |title=Microsoft Agent Ring |url=http://msagentring.org/setup.aspx |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305173031/http://msagentring.org/setup.aspx |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |access-date=May 2, 2019 |website=msagentring.org}}</ref> This technology was also used for the [[File Explorer]]'s search companions in [[Windows XP]].