News Corp launches AnzacLive Facebook chatbot to give readers an experience of the frontlines

News Corp Australia has launched a Facebook chatbot aimed at allowing readers to have a one-on-one conversation with a World War I veteran on the Western Front.

The Facebook Messenger chatbot draws on the real-life character of Australian soldier Archie Barwick, and has been programmed with his extensive diary entries in order to answers questions and send out updates from the battlefield. 

The launch of the AnzacLive chatbot coincides with commemorations for the centenary of the Battle of Fromelles, and builds on last year’s AnzacLive campaign which saw journalists prepare Facebook posts from the diaries of participants in the Gallipoli campaign, which won Social Media Idea of the Year at the Mumbrella Awards last month.

“At a time when media organisations are just starting to recognise the potential of chatbots… now, in July 2016, the characters are in France,” wrote Justin Lees, editor of AnzacLive. “The horrific disaster at Fromelles has just occurred and the grim slaughter at Pozieres is just days away.”