From the Charlie Sheen years to Ashton Kutcher’s late-in-the-game arrival, Two and a Half Men consistently topped ratings and justified its hefty budgets. As the show grew in popularity, its stars’ ...

That’s the bet of Interaction, a Palo Alto startup whose A.I. assistant, “Poke,” slips directly into iMessage. Instead of asking users to download yet another app, the founders designed Poke to meet ...