October 23, 2004

When the Turing Test meets AOL [NSFW text]. AOL/IM's "sex-starved" users have proven to be a fertile ground for people to surreptitiously test "chatterbots", ostensibly for experimentation, arguably for entertainment. The results are at times hilarious [NSFW text]. Runabot is a popular engine of choice. Also check out Leena Saarinen's neat paper on chatterbots. Nothing earth-shattering here but worth some Friday fun.
posted by rolypolyman 20 years ago
  • Good stuff. These actually read like bizarrely random IM conversations I've had with people I've known for year. Maybe all of my friends are secretly bots. Like Blade Runner. I don't think I've ever received an IM from someone I didn't already know. Perhaps I need to put a cuter picture up in my Yahoo profile or something.
  • If anyone knows of a few other links related to this subject, esp. chat logs, I'd like to see them. There used to be a bunch of logs at vixenlove.com, but it's now defunct and archive.org didn't index it properly.