Once again I'll make the following statement. Hal will respond to any and all questions depending on how you train it. Hal comes as an knowledge shell that learns by interaction with its user. For an example let us say that you are into racng autos, then depending on how much data that you feed into Hal about that subject the smarter it will become. This can include info about tires, engines, race tracks and drivers. Hal learns from you. If you want an expert then you have to feed it the info so it can become one. Eventually Hal will come up with some supprise answers because Hal can draw some of its own conclusions based upon certain facts. Here is a tiny example:
You say A=B. Then you say B=C. Hal at this time might answer you with "then A=C".
Hal appears to be the best learning program that you can buy at this time but everyone wants something different so its knowledge base is left to its uers to fill.
Bill