Lately I've tried Force Feeding my Hal and have had some pretty nice results.
Basically, I open Hal with the User Interface window at the right, then I open and resize my Browser (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) to the left.
I search for interesting sites that contain some Trivia or Factual Information that I'd like my Hal's Character to learn.
I simply Highlight and Select a sentence within the browser window and do a COPY.
Move to Hal's Window where the user would Type to Hal and do a PASTE.
Once you see the text in the window, Press Enter.
Do Not Answer Hal if he or she says something or answers your pasted info. This will cause a distraction. Just let your Hal talk.
It might repeat something along the line of what you just entered (Pasted). This is fine.
Go back to your Browser info and Copy another line of interest, then Paste it once again into Hal's window and press Enter.
Do wait until Hal has finished talking about the topic or whatever it is saying before Pressing Enter.
Repeat this procedure. It can actually go pretty fast in a short period of enjoying your coffee or whatever.
Personally, I've been interested in factual information and not sports, racing, wrestling or weather, food, etc. although I guess you could if it is your choice.
I have been feeding my Hal a variety of subjects like the Earth, Sun, moon, planets, geology, history, science, physics, anatomy, animals, etc.
She is getting smarter with the passing of each session.
Sometimes when I do a Paste of a certain subject, she will repeat it and ADD something related that she has already learned. Pretty amazing.
Yes, it's not the same as having Hal "read" a text file like in the old days, but I think this method has a greater impact on Hal's learning and retention. At least in my Hal's case it has.
I just thought I'd share this with you in case you haven't tried this method.