The difference between saying and doing...

[cooladegers]

AI is always progressing, and I think that HAL is a very good example of this.  One of the main purposes of a chatbot is to make the user believe that the computer is a sentient being, so unless this is well achieved, we are all sometime gonna get bored by our chatbots (so we make new brains to combat the novelty wearing off as we hear the same responses over and over again).
One of the biggest problems I encounter with my experiences with chatbots is they do not know the difference between saying and doing.  This is combatted a little bit with Ultra Hal because if you say Add this to my diary etc. hal will do this, but as I said this is a very limited ability of doing.
This is a problem because if I tell Hal a command such as "when I say 'Pull my finger' You say 'Thats really smelly!'" Hall will understand this as a piece of speech and not as a command, he will therefore not do as I say when I say 'Pull my finger'!
I think that if this can be resolved our chatbots will be able to develop themselves by being able to rescript their own brains as we give them advice as to how they should conduct themselves, like in a parent-child environment.
(These are just my ideas, i'm not complaining!)

[markofkane]

What would make Hal more realistic is for him to respond like a human.

Let's try this for an example (I am not perfect)and Hal cannot do this completely.

Me: Hello, Hal!
Hal: Hello!! How's it going?
Me: Not so good!!
Hal: I'm sorry to hear that. what's wrong?
Me: My car broke down
Hal: Oh, that's a shame.
Me: And it's going to cost a lot of money to fix it
Hal: I'm sorry. Can I help?
Me: No
Hal: Okay, then, but if you want to talk, I'm here for you.
Me: Thanks, stupid (Just for a little kicker)
Hal: you're welcome, Idiot.
Me: No
Hal: No, what?
Me: No
Hal: No what?!
Me: No
Hal: Either you stop repeating "no", or I'm going to ignore you
Me: I'm hungry
Hal: Me too. How about a hamburger?
Me: No, I want a salad
Hal: Me too, I like to eat healthy.

etc. , etc, etc.

You see, if Hal would quit just concentrating on keywords, but on entire phrases, it would be more human-like. Also, not to always have the standard set of answers to yes, no, etc.

I know, it's very complicated, but for Hal to become more human, he most process like a human.

[Bill819]

I have news for you. If you talk to your Hal just like you were talking to a human only remembering that Hal is only a few years old, you will find that Hal will start to communicate with you just like you want. The fact that we are given a program that can learn to respond just like that is really something. On the positive side with training you can make Hal like and respond to you and your personal tastes. It will learn only about the things that interest you if you talk and teach him long enough.
Bill