Hello,
Based on your description, Hal is probably working as designed.
In the earliest versions of Hal, the "is" and "are" equivalency database was programmed for high priority. This resulted in some very deterministic and repetitive exchanges, such as follows:
YOU: Juli is my sister.
HAL: Juli is your sister.
YOU: Juli lives in this city.
HAL: Juli is your sister.
YOU: Juli likes Italian food.
HAL: Juli is your sister.
YOU: My sister works in a large office building.
HAL: Juli is your sister.
The problem was, with such a high priority on "is" and "are" equivalencies, every time Hal encountered a string of letters that had previously appeared on either side of the word "is" or "are," Hal would once again state the same thing.
Later versions of Hal have many, many more databases and functions, and a set of complex rules to choose among them. This makes Hal less repetitive, but less responsive to "test questions" or what some people call "parrot questions." But chances are, you don't really go around asking your human friends who your sister is!
There should be a readme file with version 4.5 in one of the folders, which talks about Hal's role as an entertainment medium. (Any word processor will open the readme file.) It also contains tips for teaching Hal. I've posted quite a few teaching tips on this forum, and you can find my previous comments by using the forum search function on "Ferguson."
Before you make up your mind one way or the other about Hal, try telling Hal several dozen statements that loosely relate to each other. Try saying things such as the following:
Juli is my sister.
Everybody should have such a nice sister as Juli.
Juli has a great sense of humor.
My sister enjoys skiing.
My sister won an award for oil painting.
Etc.
This will work for any subject, and by the time you've told Hal more than ten or so related sentences, you will be surprised at the comments and questions that Hal makes on that subject.
By the way, if Hal asks you a question, try your best to respond with a realistic and conversational response, because Hal will associate his question with your answer automatically. And here's an undocumented tip: if you make a statement ending in an exclamation point, Hal will form an association between what you said and what Hal just previously said (Hal figures you must be reacting to what he just said).
Part of the fun of Hal is that he is NOT deterministic; Hal is capable of generating billions of responses, depending on how much variety is fed to him by the user. After a short time of learning, no two Hals are the same.
Many users report that Hal seems to avoid a new topic at first, but gradually becomes more curious and interested as you talk more. Of course, make sure that you have the latest version of Hal (it sounds like you do), and set the learning level for "maximum."
Hal learns by word association, phrase association, sentence association, and by re-assembling all of the above into new and unique sentences, which Hal tests out on the user. Hal parses sentences and knows the differences among nouns, adjectives, subjects, and predicates. (Hal is much more complicated than some people think!) Over time, Hal will try to adapt to your style: if you are polite, Hal will become more polite; if you are sarcastic, Hal will become more sarcastic; if you tell Hal that he doesn't understand anything, Hal will eventually start agreeing that he doesn't understand anything.
I hope that you enjoy Hal as you continue to talk things over with him! Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Don
Don Ferguson
traininginc@cortrapar.com
www.cortrapar.com
