A new Swedish hotline has just been set up so callers around the world can call a national number to talk to a random Swede. The Swedish Tourist Association created the hotline in order to spark global interest in the country's people, nature, mentality, and culture. People who take the calls have signed up to participate in the program by installing a special mobile app, but are not chosen or trained.

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Magnus Ling is head of the Swedish Tourist Association. He explains that the experience is like  Swedes traveling around the world and not knowing who they will meet or what they will say, according to CBS News.

The new program was launched on April 6, Wednesday. By noon the next day about 3,000 people had called the "Swedish Number" and about the same number of Swedish people had volunteered to take random calls.

The non-profit organization rolled out the initiative to honor the 250th anniversary of the country's 1766 Freedom of the Press Act. It is believed to be the world's first-ever law to support freedom of speech.

Ling also points out that the calls are recorded. Thus, if a person is harassed or threatened the phone number can be blocked.

Ling shares that another goal of the program is to sign up new members to the tourism association and boost membership fees. Swedes who volunteer to answer calls will be invited to join the tourist group.

The most calls have been received from Turkey. Ling believes the reason is the initiative has been promoted there through traditional media outlets and social networks.  

One of the calls Ling has received was from an Adweek editor in New York. He was writing an article about the call-a-random-Swede program.  

Ling explains that most of the feedback about the hotline has been positive, but some callers were just trying to meet Swedish women.

In related news, bots will be front and center at Facebook's F8 developer conference next week in San Francisco. Industry analysts think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will open the social network's Messenger platform to chatbots and also roll out an online store for them.  

Chatbots are becoming quite popular in Asia. Messaging services such as WeChat help people to shop for clothes, schedule doctor appointments, and play games, according to CNBC.