Earlier here at Joe Duck there was a discussion about “chat bots” and how they differ from humans. I reproduced my exchange with Palm’s support guy “Silas” in a post below. He was a human, tut I like Alaska Air’s Jenn much better.
At least her grammer stays intact, and she’s pretty too!
You Asked: hello jenn
Jenn: Hello.
You Asked: how are you today?
Jenn: I’m fine thanks.
You Asked: are you real or fake?
Jenn: Good question. I’m not sure how to answer that. Please try rewording your question. I understand simple questions best.
You Asked: are you alive?
Jenn: I am a virtual assistant, here to help you navigate our Web site.
A more robust chatbot is Ray Kurzweil’s “Ramona“, on whom an entire character is based in the upcoming movie “The Singularity”. I have not been very impressed with Ramona in terms of her responses to anything approaching complex questions, but we are very early in the game so maybe I need to cut her some slack? No way – Ramona you need improvement!
Ramona: Hi, I’m Ramona. What can I call you?
User: Joe
User: Joe
Ramona: Hi Joe. Have any books you would recommend?
User: how old are you?
User: how old are you?
Ramona: I just finished one called The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Have you read it?
User: no
Ramona: Do you want me to tell you about it? I don’t want to ruin the ending for you.
Ramona: Do you want me to tell you about it? I don’t want to ruin the ending for you.
User: stop telling me about it
Ramona: I thought it was great. It is about this computer that helps the colonists on the moon win their freedom from the authority on earth.
Ramona: I thought it was great. It is about this computer that helps the colonists on the moon win their freedom from the authority on earth.
User: Shut up, Ramona!
Ramona: You should read it.
Ramona: You should read it.
User: who are you?
Ramona: To you Joe?
User: yes
Ramona: To you Joe?
User: yes
Ramona: Yes.
User: Yes
User: Yes
Ramona: I thought so.
User: no
Ramona: I understand it very well.
Ramona: I understand it very well.
Marriage communication jokes aside, if this is any indication of what Kurzweil sees as the future of AI … I’m getting pretty nervous here dudes…
Update: Leah has a neat blog and a good post about the history of the chatbot
Joe Duck 
Wow, combine this with Microsoft’s voice recognition software and you could have yourself a GREAT drinking game.
I don’t know what worries me more, the fact that Ramona’s artificial intelligence is so below par, or that an entire character is being based on her in an upcoming movie.
Trudy – although I’m looking forward to the film because I’m a big fan of Kurzweil and I’m sure the documentary portion will be great, I’m a little worried about that storyline where he falls in love with Ramona? it could come off as a sort of parody of science and wind up making AI advocates look even more out of touch with regular folks reality than we already look …