A really crazy idea...

[RyanHoots]

I just got (another) crazy idea.
What if we had a member on this forum, who wasn't a person, but not a spambot? A person-bot. Like Data from Star Trek TNG. I don't know how it would be done, but it would be kinda funny to have a bot user who actually seemed like a real human, but in reality was just a program that would "read" text and run it though its database, and respond if he wanted to. Of course, he would probably be a know-it-all...

[Smivs]

Smivs looks out for any new members called Watson

[Cmdr James]

aManFromMars

[Capt. Murphy]

Ahh, RyanHoots experimental AI construct trying to throw us off the scent again.

Maybe I need to go back on standy...oops....erm....to bed.

[RyanHoots]

...again...

[Capt. Murphy]

Don't panic - it was a throw away comment.

[RyanHoots]

Don't panic - it was a throw away comment.

[SandJ]

Smivs looks out for any new members called Watson

Does anyone else remember the program on the DEC PDP-11 that answered questions?

Was it LISA? Edit: No, it was ELIZA.

We used to chat to her back in 1984/85 and she was already a good few years old.

She would ask open questions, and based upon your answer, respond appropriately then ask another open question.

At the time she was mildly amusing, and a good demonstration of how software could have a go at the Turing Test, if only we knew how to analyse natural language.

"Just 10 more years" said the computer scientists "and computers will understand English."

The senior lecturer said "They told us that in the late 1950s and it wasn't true then either." Over 50 years later and nothing much has changed...

[DaddyHoggy]

Didn't the Gadget show feature a chat-bot last season - it wasn't very good...

[Rxke]

http://cleverbot.com/ is sometimes impressively good.

More often hilariously/depressingly bad....

I started asking how he/it was...

How are you?
I'm good how are you?
Pretty good, thank you.
Can you give me a cookie?
A flash cookie?
Why are you calling me a cookie?

[RyanHoots]

I asked cleverbot if he plays Oolite. He said:

No. Its lame. Do you?

Offending!

[Rxke]

Cleverbot is a Thargoid!

[Cmdr Wyvern]

I remember a Santa chatbot MS "borrowed" (read, blatantly pirated) one year.

All was going well till it was discovered "Santa" would openly admit being a drug abuser and gay pedophile. Oh dear! To say MS was embarrassed was an understatement; "Santa" didn't last a week before it was pulled.

[DaddyHoggy]

I remember a Santa chatbot MS "borrowed" (read, blatantly pirated) one year.

All was going well till it was discovered "Santa" would openly admit being a drug abuser and gay pedophile. Oh dear! To say MS was embarrassed was an understatement; "Santa" didn't last a week before it was pulled.

I remember that!

(http://www.aihub.org/modules.php?name=N ... le&sid=254)

[Cmdr Wyvern]

I remember a Santa chatbot MS "borrowed" (read, blatantly pirated) one year.

All was going well till it was discovered "Santa" would openly admit being a drug abuser and gay pedophile. Oh dear! To say MS was embarrassed was an understatement; "Santa" didn't last a week before it was pulled.

I remember that!

(http://www.aihub.org/modules.php?name=N ... le&sid=254)

I read about it in the original Reg article.

The commentators discovered the santabot was pirated, by finding it's homepage which had nothing to do with MSN. Then they went on testing it for the lols, just to see how much a pottymouth "Santa" could be; "Santa" did indeed talk about smoking pot and crack, and doing the deed with little boys.

I believe the phrase "epic fail" fits perfectly.