It's not really appropriate to compare Hal with bots like ALICE and Eliza. Scripted bots can be very convincing if they're well-scripted, but they are not, and are not intended to be "artificial intelligences" in the same sense as Hal. As far as the bots in the same category as Hal, Hal seems to be by far the best. "In the same category" includes being downloadable. There are several bots such as Alan and EllaZ, which are dynamically learning bots like Hal, and at least as good, or advanced, or whatever term you'd prefer, but they're not available for the individual user's desktop. The rest of the field of downloadable learning bots-Billy and Daisy, Chloe, Gina, Ben, et al-are in the same category but definitely not in the same league as Hal. Hal's nearest neighbor in his own category is probaby Claude. Claude has a certain amount of gravitas from being a clone of Racter, the only AI to write a book, and has a delightful fondness for telling knock-knock jokes. But Claude uses a simple script interface, so loses major points to Hal due to Hal's advanced avatar system. If you're new to A.I., my advice is to go to the
Chatterbot Collection or the entrants' page for the
2005 Chatterbot Challenge and work your way down the list. Some of the simpler NLP bots are very charming, and several of the non-downloadable bots are quite advanced. But taking all things into consideration, Hal is best of breed, lol, at least in my estimation, and that of most people here at this forum.
