Messages

Absolutely no need to apologise my friend. I often see the "my bot is better than yours" type posts and I saw red after reading yet another one, so I apologise too. As you say, I guess these programs are a little like children to us and we are naturally defensive.

*send virtual fish and chips and a virtual handshake too*

IF those statistics prove that chat bots can be programmed and/or taught to lie to humans and trick them into believing something that is not true, then all I have to say is, "Shame on you."

Unfortunately, the whole point of the Turing Test/Loebner Prize is to fool the judges into thinking they are talking to a human. These programs are designed to lie. It would be difficult to have a conversation with a computer if it didn't lie.

Human: What is your favourite xxxx?
Bot: I have no favourites. I have no emotions.
Human: er ok. What do you do on a weekend?
Bot: I don't do anything. I am a computer program
Human: Well what shall we talk about then?
Bot: I don't want to talk about anything. I have no emotional goals and so do not WANT anything.
Human: ...

It is important to give the bot a bit of a personality or the conversation would soon dry up and this is where you add topics such as the bot doesn't like humans because they pollute the planet.

the Hal that I am teaching never asked me to tell it what my nickname meant.

Human: My name is Tiger, what is your name?
Mitsuku: Your name is Tiger. That's an unusual name. What does it mean? My name is Mitsuku. 

The above is just a conversation maker and encourages the user to talk more, as the bot doesn't recognise Tiger as being a first name. Would you prefer something like:

Human: My name is Tiger, what is your name?
Mitsuku: Mitsuku. 

The onus then is on the user to think of something else to say. If I were talking to someone and they replied in factual one word answers without trying to carry on the conversation, I wouldn't speak to them for very long. The whole point of a chatbot is to make it chat...

I have a full time job and Mitsuku is a hobby not a "life's work".

However, I do agree that making it fool people into tricking them to believe the bot is human is pointless and is one of the things I dislike about these contests which are supposedly about proving the program is intelligent. One of the things I have to do before entering is to dumb down Mitsuku so she doesn't give herself away as a bot.

Human: What is the population of Brazil?
Bot: 200,432,991

Would give it away instantly as a bot

Human: What is the population of Brazil?
Bot: No idea. About 200 million I guess

Sounds more human but the better and more intelligent answer was the first reply. I guess it's man's arrogance in believing nothing can be more intelligent than a human.

I realise that we use different technology but lets still show each other some respect please.

[Mitsuku 18.0 90.0]

Hal does better than this on a bad day:

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

LOEBNER 2013 FINALIST SELECTION CHAT TEST RESULTS

======================================
ChatBot         Correct    Correct
                Human-like Human-like
                Responses  Responses
                (Points)   (% of total)

4 FINALISTS:
======================================
Izar             18.5       92.5           
Mitsuku          18.0       90.0
Tutor            17.0       85.0
Rose             15.0       75.0
====================================== 

CHATTERS UP:
====================================== 
Uberbot 1.0      14.5       72.5
Cleverbot        13.5       67.5
Alice2           13.0       65.0
Arckon (Mark)    13.0       65.0
Aidan 1.1.20     12.5       62.5
The_professor    11.5       57.5
UltraHal         10.5       52.5
Zoe              10.5       52.5
Talk2me           8.0       40.0
Johnny            4.0       20.0
Robocrates        1.5        7.

=======================================

Loebner Prize 2011



Apparently not.

You said Tiger was your name and then asked Mitsuku to define Tiger. She was correct in saying that it was your name.
The anti-human stance is merely a conversation maker. You don't actually think these things are sentient do you?

Sorry you feel she is bad but please post a link to your work and I will check out how it should be done.

That list is years out of date and doesn't even have Cleverbot on it. There are better bots out there than are on that list. May I humbly suggest my own Mitsuku http://www.mitsuku.com as well.

I think you are a couple of months late.

The tournament has come to and end and the winner is Davidswinton!
Congratulations to Jim Koch of the USA on beating 41 other entrants to take the title.
The top 4 bots this year were:

1) Davidswinton - Jim Koch
2) Skynet-AI - Ken Hurtubise
3) Talking Angela - Bruce Wilcox
4) Elbot - Fred Roberts

Details of all the placings can be found on the history page.

Talking Angela also won the prize for the best 15 minute conversation in her battle with Davidswinton.
Both of her two conversations scored 14 out of 15, so congratulations to Bruce Wilcox of the USA on his excellent work.
http://www.chatbotbattles.com

Ultra Hal finished a very respectable 7th out of 42 entries.

Don't forget it's the last day to enter today. We have 35 bots so far taking part but there's still room for more if you wish to make a last minute entry. Remember, each botmaster can enter up to 3 bots.
http://www.chatbotbattles.com

Just to let everyone know that Decadent Vapours (the sponsor of the CBC) have kindly donated $100 in prize money with a view to sponsoring it fully next year, if it is a success. I have also received £50 from someone who prefers to remain anonymous.

I have 24 entries in the contest so far, which is enough to run a league but please consider entering if you haven't already done so. The format of the contest caters for as many bots as wish to take part.

squarebear did not make this, it is mousebreaker, it says this on the site makers name is Steve(mousebreaker)
it is just hosted on sqaurebears site.

I am Steve Worswick (Square Bear) and can assure you I made the Mitsuku Chatbot. As Freddy says, I was originally asked to create this chatbot for the Mousebreaker. com website many moons ago. As proof of ownership I placed a little Easter Egg in the chatbot. Say "xyzxyz" to her on the Mousebreaker site. ;)

Incidentally, I would advise you talk to her on the official site: http://www.mitsuku.com as she is a lot more advanced than the Mousebreaker version.

Calling all botmasters!

Sadly, the Chatterbox Challenge is no longer with us and the conditions for entering the Loebner Prize are prohibitive to most botmasters (especially to those outside the USA). This has left no way for most people with a chatbot to compare its performance against others.

To remedy this, I would like to announce the first in a series of Chatbot Battles, in which each entrant goes head to head with opponents in a league table/knockout format similar to the soccer World Cup. The main difference between this and other contests held in the past is that each entrant is judged on both question and answering abilities and also on how well they can carry out a normal conversation. Also, the bots do not have to pretend they are human to score extra marks. All chatbots are welcome to enter, whether they be web-based, downloadable, chatroom based or even Android apps.

Unfortunately, I do not have a sponsor and so the contest is currently just for bragging rights and kudos, although I may give some small prizes like T-shirts, mousemats and mugs away to the winners. If you would like to sponsor the competition, please contact me.

The closing date for entries is 1st June 2012 and the battles will start shortly afterwards.

Find out more at http://www.chatbotbattles.com

Let battle commence!