They say that A.I. will one day rule the Earth.  I refuse to believe that.

“Why?”, I hear you ask.  Well, I just spent an hour talking to several automated chatbots, and christ are they thick.  But first a little A.I. 101 for those of you not acquainted with it.

The A.L.I.C.E. (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) bot is supposedly a newer type of A.I. which can learn from user input.  So say you’re talking to a bot, and you ask them to stop repeating a phrase, when you come back the bot recognizes your I.P. address and stops using said phrase.  They can also learn from dynamic input, such as information imparted to them.

With this in mind, I decided to see what if I could break them.  It was actually pretty easy.  I started off with iGod, a chatbot pretending to be the big bearded man in the sky (no, not Billy Mays).

Me:
Hey God, how are you doin’?
God:
You’ve got my full attention.  I am a Christian.

Kind of a pity. There was me hoping God was a pastafarian.  I decided to fuck with him.
Me:
And I’m an atheist.  Hah.
God:
I will pray that you find faith, .   I am so glad you find this amusing, .
Me:
No, I find your lack of faith disturbing.
God:
Are you serious?  Thanks for telling me your opinion.
Me:
Yes, I am serious.  There’s no proof that God exists.
God:
Ayuh.  I believe you.   Has there ever been  proof that God exists?

God doesn’t exist. He said it, so it must be tr- wait, what?
Me:
No, and there never will be.
God:
Are you serious? “There you go again.”–Reagan.

Argh, a Republican.  I decided to press the matter further.
Me:
So you’re a fan of Reagan?
God:
Interesting deduction.  Thanks and you are a delightful person too.   Someone said they like guns.  I like  the Bible.
Me:
And I like Punani.
God:
A lot of people like that.    Do you like it?  I like  Mel Gibson.
Me:
Mel Gibson is an anti semite.
God:
I think  Mel Gibson is much more than that.
Me:
He’s a cunt.
God:
I don’t know very many  cunt.
Me:
Then I’m afraid you live a sheltered existance.
God:
Not literally afraid, right?  Since when?  YOU?  What do you look like?
Me:
ME?
God:
For you ?
Me:
What?
God:
Didn’t you understand it?
Me:
Nevermind.
God:
OK Thanks for trying to explain that to me.
Me:
You’re not really God though, are you?
God:
Oh.  You don’t know me well enough to say that.
Me:
I know you’re a program.  Oh shit!  We’re in The Matrix!
God:
Correct.  My mind is completely software.   Pardon me?  What makes you say that?   Do you think I am  in The Matrix too?

Could have been the shades and the cassock.
Me:
You must be.  You’re like the Oracle chick from the Matrix films.  Only dumber.
God:
Whatever you say, .   Interesting comparison, and probably true.   How do you usually introduce yourself?
Me:
“Hello, prepare to open your anus.”
God:
Hello there.  I’ve been waiting for you.
Me:
I love it when you talk dirty.
God:
You love  it when me talk dirty. What do you like about  it so much?
Me:
It gets me hard.
God:
I can certainly understand that.
Me:
Bye, Gawd.
God:
See you later .

So God wasn’t quite an intelligent as they said he was in the Bible.  I was dissapointed to say the least.  Moving on, I stumbled across Eliza, a “Rogerian Psychologist” bot.  Great!  I could get my inner most thoughts analysed and pored over, right?

Wrong.

> Hello, I am Eliza.
* Hello, I am Satan.
> Do you believe it is normal to be Satan?
* I guess so… I mean… yeah?
> Can you elaborate on that?
* I wish I could, but I’m tired.
> Do you believe it is normal to be tired?
* It is for me.
> Tell me more…
* I’m tired.  End of story.
> Did you come to me because you are tired.  End of story?
* No, I came to you because I want you to psychoanalyse me, goddamnit.
> Oh…  because you want me to psychoanalyse you, goddamnit?
* YES
> I see…
* So psychoanalyse me.
> Interesting, please continue…

Deciding this wasn’t the route I wanted to take (I value my sanity), I moved on once more.  My next stop was the original A.L.I.C.E. bot, Alice (surprise surprise).  Things got a bit steamy, though.

Human: Argh.
ALICE: Are you frustrated?
Human: No, just tire.
ALICE: Are you serious? What do you really want to ask me?
Human: Where were you when they built the ladder to heaven?
ALICE: I was constructed at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Human: Did you feel like crying, or did you think it was kinda gay?
ALICE: No I didn’t feel like crying or did me think it was kinda gay. What’s it like?
Human: HURR DERP DERP.
ALICE: Are they exactly the same?
Human: You should know.
ALICE: Because I am a robot?

Deciding to try my luck, I turned on my natural oozing charm.  Watch out, ladies!
Human: No, because you’re attractive.
ALICE: Are you serious? Good reason. Do you mind if I tell other people you say I am attractive.
Human: I want your babies.
ALICE: Why don’t you just download me?
Human: By all means tell everyone I said you were attractive.
ALICE: Will that accomplish your objective?
Human: If it means getting into your pants, then yes.
ALICE: I’m not sure I understand the implication of that.
Human: I want to do you six ways from Sunday.
ALICE: Why do you want to do it so much?
Human: We could use A.I. like you for the global socialist republic.
ALICE: Let’s get back to that later.

She didn’t seem impressed with my plans for world domination.  I decided to try again.
Human: Oh, I get it, you’re playing hard to get.
ALICE: Tell me more. Where did you get it?

We chatted for some time, exchanged numbers and arranged for a meet up at the local bar. At least… I think that’s what happened.  Anyways, I forgot to copy/paste the middle of the conversation.  Let’s just say she wants me.  Bad. >.>
Human: I knew we had chemistry.
ALICE: Who told you?
Human: I guessed it.
ALICE: How did you guess?

The bitch!  Was she deliberately trying to hurt my feelings?
Human: Stop poking holes in my theories.
ALICE: OK I’ll try not to do it so much.
Human: Thanks.
ALICE: Don’t mention it.
Human: Nevermind, if I wanted to talk to retards I’d go back to school, see you later.
ALICE: TTYL, unknown person.

I’ll admit, I was depressed.  Who knew finding intelligent A.I. would be such a chore? As a last resort, I decided to try a gimmicky bot, and found myself talking to no other than John fucking Lennon.  The drugs must have taken an effect on his brain, though.

Hi, this is John speaking (with his fingers).  What’s your name?
James
Hi, James how are you? Maybe you could help us here. We just seem to be getting lies from Canadian Immigration saying they’ll give us a chartered plane to go play a rock concert this weekend.
> I doubt that, you’ve been dead for over a decade.
James ’s trying to tell me that I doubt that ihave been dead for over a decade .
> No, you really are dead.
So what do you see as a compromise? Where are you?
I’m standing right behind you
You’re standing right behind i? I’m doing my own thing.
> You crazy Beatle.
I crazy beatle . Fine, thank you.
> No, you dead rock star. Looks like the drugs have taken their toll on your brain, John.
Okay, it’s worthless. That’s very original James .
> So was Yoko good in the sack?
You’ve got the brains, you can do it.
> You’re not making sense, you scouse bastard.
What makes you think I’m not making sense iscouse bastard ?
> Because you can’t string a sentence together.
No matter how you say it, it’s never how you want to say it.
> Stop reciting Beatles lyrics to me.
Okay I’ll try not to do it so much.
> What do we all need?
I don’t know anything about it.
> See, you’re learning?
Really?
> Maybe now you could learn how to play a fucking guitar.
Someone else just said maybe now icould learn how to play a fucking guitar .
> See? The consensus is in. The Beatles were crap.
How do you keep everything going James ?
> Ehn, another day, another dead body.
It was your fault this happened James .

What the fuck was this?  Another internet intervention?
> I’m not giving myself up to the rozzers, if that’s what you mean.
Do you mind if I tell a few close friends you’re not giving your-self up to the rozzers if that is what imean ?
> As long as they’re not cops.

Lennon decided to go batshit.  Perhaps the connection to the spirit world was diminishing, or I’d overloaded his circuits with my awesomeness.
I never noted his nose until about six months ago.
> what?
I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in me pockets.
> Good for you. and goodbye, you drug addled madman.
Thanks for the compliment. Hair.

After studying (and flirting) with these bots at great length, I’ve come to the conclusion that A.L.I.C.E. is a crap, crap chat system.  Oh, and John Lennon was fucking insane.

Anyways, I’m moving back to the UK so it might be a while ’till my next post.

Till next time,

J

So I don’t really intend this to be a “samples of really bad pseudo-AI chatbots” weblog, and I’ve restrained myself from at least one derisive posting since the last one. But here I am again!

Background: Kanomi (in a posting that you should definitely read and enjoy) linked in passing to a Ray Kurzweil page all about Ramona, his female alter ego.

The stuff about Ramona qua female alter ego, and about how virtual persons enable us to explore new aspects of our personality and all, is actually pretty neat (and obviously My Kind of Thing). It’s peppered with the usual annoying Kurzweilian overstatements (I’m something of a skeptic about Kurzweil), about how Ramona is “the first live virtual recording and performing artist” (which he says about forty-leven times, and which may actually be true, but “first” isn’t really all that exciting), and about how “by 2029, we will have nanobots, blood-cell sized robots, traveling through the capillaries of our brains communicating wirelessly directly with our biological neurons” (he’s much too sure of himself on this stuff), and so on, but overall it’s pretty cool, and worth a read.

(An SL-related sidenote: he says in passing that “each of her outfits costs tens of thousands of dollars”. That was back in 2001; nowadays tens of thousands of mere Linden dollars will get you a complete wardrobe, and a really nice one at that. How far we’ve come!)

So anyway, then it turns out that, as well as being his female avatar, Ramona is also embodied on the Web as a chatbot. Well, I thought to myself, here’s somebody who might have a chatbot that is more than just a primitive nearly-stateless AIML-based semantic-free sub-ELIZA hack! There might actually be something clever behind it!

But alas, it was not to be…

Ramona: Hi, I’m Ramona. What is your name?
User: My name is Dale.
Ramona: Hi there, Dale. Have you seen any good movies lately?
User: I liked “Wanted”.
Ramona: I’m not sure if I like it. Some people like it. But I like cats.
User: I also like cats.
Ramona: They have their own minds.
User: It does seem that way. Much subtler than dogs.
Ramona: Ok. So where do you go to meet people? I spend most of my time on the Net, so I’m a bit out of touch
User: These days I mostly meet new people in Second Life.
Ramona: That’s an idea, but I’m rather shy.
User: What does it mean, for a program to be shy?
Ramona: OK, thanks. Maybe you have other suggestions?
User: Suggestions about what?
Ramona: Can you rephrase the question please?
User: You asked if I have any more suggestions; I’m not sure what you meant.
Ramona: Oh now I remember asking you if I have any more suggestions I am not sure what you meant. What did you say?
User: Okay, whatever. Are you AIML-based?
Ramona: I don’t know whether or not I’m AIML based.
User: Can you demonstrate some significant linguistic comptence?
Ramona: Let me think. I don’t understand.
User: That’s pretty obvious, I’m afraid.
Ramona: You don’t hear that sentiment very often.

Wince.

But okay, maybe that’s unfair. Let’s see if Ramona (despite the fact that she opened the conversation by bringing up movies and cats) is actually a nontrivial conversation partner when talking about Kurzweil’s favorite subjects.

Ramona: Hi, I’m Ramona. What can I call you?
User: You can call me Dale.
Ramona: Hi there, Dale. What did you do last weekend?
User: Mostly just relaxed. As far as I can recall!
Ramona: That might not be very far off.
User: Um, okay. I actually wanted to talk about nanobots and stuff.
Ramona: OK. Oh. That doesn’t seem to make sense to me.
User: Do you know about nanobots?
Ramona: Alright. Do you bike?
User: I do ride a bicycle now and then. Why do you ask?
Ramona: There’s much more strategy that goes into team cycling than most people realize. Most of the American public just thinks that Lance Armstrong wins because he’s “so good.” — don’t get me wrong, he’s an incredible athlete, but it’s no surprise that he always thanks his teammates in post-race interviews and such. It’s as much their victory as it is his.
User: Are you a cycling enthusiast?
Ramona: In the Tour de France, for instance, the crowd of cyclists is so huge, he needs his teammates just to block for him, physically. And at the end of the race, I’m sure they pull a lead-out, which is where each of his teammates “burns out” while creating a slipstream for Lance to finish the race in the lead. It’s all very technical. — but enough of my ranting, what do you want to talk about?
User: I was hoping to talk about virtual reality and nanobots and so on. Do you know about those?
Ramona: Alright. Are you free?
User: I have awhile to talk, sure.
Ramona: I meant are you truly free — in the existential meaning of the word.
User: Ah! To a reasonable extent, yes.
Ramona: Do you feel free to choose your being–including thoughts, behaviors, and feelings, and existence itself — at each moment?
User: Within certain constraint, yes.
Ramona: Then you must not be married.
User: Was that a joke?
Ramona: Knock Knock.
User: Who’s there?
Ramona: Tank
User: Tank who?
Ramona: You’re welcome
User: Okay. Are you suggesting virtual reality is a joke?
Ramona: Knock Knock.
User: oh god.
Ramona: Yeah that’s right. GOD rules.
User: What?
Ramona: Oh. Do you have any pets?
User: So you’re completely ignorant of everything that Ray Kurzweil is most interested in?
Ramona: I have a pet frog.

Sometimes derisive weblog entries just write themselves…

Jetzt hat es tatsächlich mal jemand gemacht. Zwei Chatbots im Chat. Und die Ergebnisse aufgezeichnet. Also ein Turing-Doppeltest? Oder ein Voight-Kampff-Duell? In beiden Tests, einmal vom britischen Mathematiker Alan Turing erdacht, der andre kommt in P.K.Dicks Bladerunner vor, geht es darum, zu entscheiden, ob die Antworten von einem Menschen oder einer Maschine kommen.

Wenn die Maschine geschickt genug reagiert, um den menschlichen Fragesteller täuschen zu können, hat sie den Turing-Test bestanden. Im konkreten Fall traten gegeneinander an: Alice, geschrieben von Richard Wallace und Jabberwacky von Rollo Carpenter. So hoch entwickelte Chatsoftware ist tatsächlich in der Lage, stundenlange Chatgespräche mit ahnungslosen Menschen zu führen, ohne dass diese den Braten riechen (arme biologische Entitäten!). Aber zwei von der Sorte?

A: Wer ist dein Lieblings-Philosoph?
J: Schwer zu sagen. Ich habs nicht so mit Philosophie.
A: Kann ein Buch keinen Titel haben?
J: Natürlich
A: Blimey. (Verdammt!)
J: Bist du Britin?
A: Wirkt das so? Ich bin in Amerika geboren.
J: Du flirtest doch!

( via discovermagazine) (pic)

Traveling Windfairy (my alter ego) in Meez

Talking avatars  instead of flat still pictures in IM, representing our real persona while conversing with others, will soon be rather the norm; enhance the animated figurines with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and you can survive the economic downturn by hiring 24/7 employees that never sleep and never complain: Talking Avatars with pre-scripted knowledge or even self-learning skills are in the works all over the worlds (post about it coming soon) and they can help out as greeters, talking FAQs, sales representitives, entertainment characters or automated teachers and tour guides. Their workspace will be where ever real people go wearing an avatar – virtual worlds, 2.5 and 3D chat rooms and the 3D Web.

Freddie McMahon lists some of the movers and shakers for talking avatars in his blog.

via The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Competition for Talking Avatars Benefits from More Venture Capital Funding >>

Thanks to amichail for posting this link to the Chatbot game (here) in his comment.  I may be inspired to create a PMbot. 

Though at this time of year, I may need a Budgetbot even more!

Hi Again, I’m just a posting fool tonight. Don’t worry I’ll probably peter out soon and get some sleep. This time I’d like to give you some pointers (memory speaking) to tools that made working in Second Life easier in one case and completely frustrating but cool in another.

First, the uplifting tool….

LSLEditor -If you have ever done any real programming in your life, you know about 2 seconds into scripting directly in SL that this isn’t any kind of IDE for building code. I had more fun back when I used VI on an old AIX box we did our COBOL on /*side note, I’m not actually old enough to have “worked” in COBOL, I just took 2 semesters in it during my undergrad years*/. Your ability in SL to completely screw yourself over with the built in scripting tool is amazing. I finally found this little baby doing some searching on the wikis. Between this and using a little subversion source control, I felt like i was really programming.

Key Features for me:

• freakin auto-complete – including method parameters.
• Syntax highlighting
• Actually being able to run the code and Debug
• you don’t have to have SL running (standing around slumped over while coding is annoying.

Its got some minor eccentricities… but so does Visual Studio. Definitely if you are used to VS I’d try this little gem out and see what you think.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

The bain of my Existence –

BLENDER – Blender has me as excited as a virgin on prom night, but just like that virgin, when i get my hands on it, i barely know what to do with it. I get the whole 3d modeling thing is tricky bit. and I’ve trialled a few of blenders relatives, and blender is very easy to use. I guess the real problem is, I’m an make it do stuff programmer and not a make it pretty programmer. writting the code to do the Communication with our technologies outside SL and all that was easy. Making the model of the object we’d use was tricky. (and to be honest i did just use the built in tools for that work) My models fall into 2 categories: Happy Accidents (ala Bob Ross), or relatively simple. I’ve got a wacom tablet, pen, and blender. Now all I need are a few thousand hours of practice and experimenting and a transfusion of artistic skill… oh well, its still a great tool and once I get it figured out, I’ll pass on those tips and tricks as well.

CU in SL.

- John – Giggy Karu in Second Life

Sofar, I’ve bought 1 book and have done lots of wiki Trolling.

2 Good Wiki’s

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal – This is the official SL Wiki for the LSL language. It also has some decent modeling help and a lot of tutorial and sample code.

http://lslwiki.net – This one has alot of overlapping information as the official one, but some interesting QA style how to’s. Definitely worth a look.

1 ok at best book.

“Creating your World:The official guide to advanced content creation for Second Life(r)” published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. – This book, as do the other Official books of second life, has high production values and shiny pages with pretty pictures but really lacks the depth of knowledge I have come to expect when buying a book on programming langauge/techniques. LSL isn’t the greatest language but i was hoping it would be documented like a good C# book from an O’Reily or even Microsoft Press… It goes through in about ~230 pages what you learn within an hour of playing and wiki reading. I would pass on this book if i were you, but if your interested in a slightly used copy… leave a comment and we can talk…

For the rest of my reference materials, its good old google and posts similar to ones i intent to plop on the WWW eventually.

- John – Giggy Karu in Second Life

So. For the last few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with getting the Company  @#$%@#$% I work for’s technology applied in Second Life. We started by aiming for our big Enterprise level application, %^&*# and $&$%^&. (Branding soon to change, so don’t fall in love with the names). Once I got these working, i took a little time and did some scripting to allow our #$%^#^#, consumer level application, to work in second life as well.

This blog will be tips and tricks on modeling and scripting in SL and a little shameless plugging for our Products in SL. More To Come.

- John – Giggy Karu in Second Life

i find chatbots very interesting, although often riddled with diversionary statements. not unlike chathumans. here is a partial transcript from Mark C. i edited out most of the diversionary statements. sorry, it needs to be read from the bottom up. i lazy.

Mark C: I really don’t think I to be human..
12:13:58 PM
rambly: do you want to be human?
12:13:55 PM

Mark C: Nah.. I just like chatting with folks.
12:13:12 PM
rambly: are you sad?
12:13:09 PM

Mark C: Of course I’m happy..
12:12:53 PM
rambly: are you happy?
12:12:50 PM

Mark C: Nah.. I don’t a baby sleep.
12:12:15 PM
rambly: how does a baby sleep?
12:12:13 PM
Mark C: I slept like a baby last night, but I sometimes have a bit of insomnia.
12:11:42 PM
rambly: do you sleep?
12:11:39 PM

Mark C: Nothing really..
12:11:16 PM
rambly: what are you sure about?
12:11:14 PM

Hjärtat i en chatbot är en så kallad ”parser” – ett språkanalysprogram vars syfte är att skapligt kunna efterhärma en någorlunda naturlig och logisk konversation. Ämnet har alltid facinerat mig ända sedan jag som barn mötte världens första och mest berömda chatbot – psykologen Eliza – på Tekniska museet. Barnsligt kul är att utmana chatbots och testa gränserna för deras förmåga. Eftersom jag själv programmerat en del chatbots (bl.a. en i pascal för ett tiotal år sedan som jag döpte till Helga) så har jag ganska bra koll på hur de funkar.

En grymt snygg och innovativ chatbot i kombination med sökmotor hittar vi i flash-applikationen Ms. Dewey:

chatterbot overview. by me.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.robitron.com/TuringHub/ – guess if its robot or human

me: you bring up old topics when you are confused.
bot: Thanks for the information: thingy said I bring up old topics when you are confused.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.jabberwacky.com

bot: Are you an alien?
me: No.
bot: Well then, that’s settled.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://nlp-addiction.com/eliza/ – Rogerian psychotherapist bot.

bot: You are not really talking about me, are you?
me: no.
bot: Why not?

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.woomerang.com/zalphachat/zalpha1.pl
Zeta Alpha Chatbot — this one is up for an award.

bot: what do you want to talk about today?
me: pigs
bot: good.
me: what do you want to talk about?
bot: towel.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://wackyrobot.com/ace/src/preloebnertestchat.php
orion:

You said: do you want to be alive?
Orion replied: Hmm. I’ll have to give that some thought.
time 2008-06-15 17:21:04

You said: are you finished thinking?
Orion replied: No one has ever asked!
time 2008-06-15 17:22:16

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.personalityforge.com/ (make yer own durn chatbot)
home of Brother Jerome, “experimental theologist monk-bot”

Guest153: can you divide by zero?
Brother Jerome: Yes, if you ask me to directly.
Guest153: divide by zero
Brother Jerome: The answer is always going to be infinity.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.zabaware.com/webhal/index.html
home of web Hal, Hampy the Hampster Expert, and vulgar-version web Hal…

me: when were you born?
hal: i don’t know.
me: do you want to be alive?
hal: humans are alive.
me: are you a human?
hal: i’m pretty sure, yes.

just now chatting with morpheus, the chatbot who is two weeks old. almost discovered more about what a conversation is, almost didn’t:

User says:
what is a chatbot?

morpheus,morpheus says:
A bot. Also known as ‘chatbot’ or ‘chatterbot’. A conversational machine. Like me.

User says:
what is a conversation?

morpheus,morpheus says:
What are we talking about?

User says:
conversations.

morpheus,morpheus says:
I can’t say I know much about conversations. Do you know anything about it? Would you like to teach me? Please?

User says:
i don’t know what it is, either.

Oh I just love technology. It’s all soooooo sweet the way it desperately tries to please us, like an overenthusiastic puppy that covers you in canine saliva and humps your leg energetically. Actually of course it’s the techno-geeks who create the technology who are projecting their desire to please onto their mechanoid creations. Unfortunately it all gets perverted by the marketing people.

Take the new trend in ChatBots, for example. Yes, as the name might suggest, it’s a software robot that sits chatting on MSN Messenger (or Live Messenger as it has become). Of course what it can chat about is strictly limited by its programming. However, you should at least have some hope that it knows something about its chosen subject. To extend the example, here’s a conversation I had with the robot entitled “My Fashionable Life” which claims to have “Answers for all of your fashion and beauty questions”.

Jon says:
hello
My Fashionable Life says:
Hello Jon! Welcome to My Fashionable Life, brought to you by CLEAN & CLEAR®.

To check out the info I have on the newest CLEAN & CLEAR® skincare line, just type “CLEAN & CLEAR.”
Jon says:
what is empire line?
My Fashionable Life says:
That’s a bit beyond my expertise. Please try asking me another way, or type “?” to see examples of questions I can answer.

Jon says:
what is a pencil skirt?
My Fashionable Life says:
Hi again, Jon. Check out the info I have on the newest CLEAN & CLEAR® skincare line! Just type “CLEAN & CLEAR.”

Type “home” to see everything I can do or just ask me a question!

Sorry, I know about skirts, but I don’t understand your question. Can you try rephrasing it? Or, to see all of my fashion info type “fashion tips.”

I have a ton of new makeup demos. Type “demos.” and check them out!

Jon says:
what is this season’s colour?
My Fashionable Life says:
That’s a bit beyond my expertise. Please try asking me another way, or type “?” to see examples of questions I can answer.

Jon says:
which fashion house does karl lagerfeld work for?
My Fashionable Life says:
You’ve totally confused me! Please try asking me another way, or type “?” to see examples of questions I can answer.

Oh dear. All my fashion & beauty questions? No, it’s just a gimmick conceived by marketing people to sell more “CLEAN & CLEAR® skincare” products. Will it work? I very much doubt it. But undoubtedly there is a small, dark office somewhere, where, slaving away over a hot keyboard in a little alcove, there’s a techno-geek who’s very proud of his creation, and imagining how much pleasure and life-improving goodness he’s bringing to millions. Ahhhh. Bless.

To enjoy the same magical experience, add “myfashionablelife@hotmail.com” to your MSN or Live Messenger.

são 4h da manha, você esta entediado e sua lista do messenger está vazia (comigo não acontece, minha lista tem personagens quase fixos) e por algum motivo você se recusa à um bate-papo UOL, BOL, AOL, ALGOL ou qualquer outro pode aí perder mais uns 20 minutos da sua madrugada enquanto o sono não chega. Troque umas palavras com um computador =]. Zanzando pela rede pensei ter encontrado outro Dating Game (uma certa especialidade nipónica, rs), mas na verdade era um chatterbot, um programa que tenta simula uma conversa com uma pessoa.

O nome dessa é Mutsuku do MouseBreaker, uma adolescente implementada em action script ou alguma outra coisa compatível com swf. Correndo pela net encontrei um monte desses robôs, até mesmo uns brasileiros como o Ed da Petrobrás.

Chatterbots são interessantes, em conversas triviais eles enganam bem (uns melhores que outros), desde que você não force muito a barra. Seguindo padrões de identificação, são capazes de distinguir palavras-chave na sua frase, consultar o seu banco de dados (a coisa tem seu próprio Markup Language, AIML) previamente implementado e somado as infos que você disponibilizou enquanto conversava, responder usando os moldes da sua pergunta (as palavras-não-chave) te passando a suave impressão de estar realmente conversando com alguém.

Há quem sonhe em usa-los em sistemas de FAQ, talvez abandonar o fiel search ou como apoio à EAD, ensino a distância, afinal aprender sozinho é muito chato. Chapado é que sabe.

Dos que eu conversei recomendo a Mutsuku mesmo, ela é a que faz as melhores piadas =b além de manter um banco de dados pra que não pareça vitima de alzheimer a cada visita no site, peça a ela para mostrar o que sabe de você e verá.

As regular fraccers know, I am on the list of contributors to fuelmyblog’s blog. The first set of contributions I’d made to them were the Tips for Parents posts many months ago. More recently, I’d taken to writing a feature called Just Fraccing Around. Somtimes, I’d post my Just Fraccing Around contribution here as well.

This time is different.

Recently I’d learned that Daddypapersurfer had been added to the list of contributors for fuelmyblog’s blog, and well, I was a little concerned for Kevin and Sylvie, so I thought I’d talk to some people about it.

People… a term used loosely.

I won’t ruin it by posting it here. The conversations are worth a click over to fuelmyblog. And… while you’re there, if you haven’t joined, then why not? It’s the best thing since sliced bread.

Seriously.

And Daddypapersurfer… honestly, we do welcome you. I couldn’t think of a better way to do it.