[LINK] Telstra - talking to a machine

[jeff.evans@dsd.vic.gov.au]

For those with an interest, this site < http://www.botspot.com/ > has info
on hundreds of 'bots', including "chat bots" which ELIZA is one of the
earliest.

One such chat bot, ALICE "has already influenced some events in the real
world by telling lies and spreading gossip."  There's also "BRIAN .. a
computer program that thinks it is an 18 year old college student" (from
Sydney!) and ChomskyBot "Something of an underground favorite, this bot
creates paragraphs based on the words of Noam Chomsky. " Just what we need!

And there's also the Mutual Admiration Society <
http://botspot.com/best/12-09-97.htm > "Take a walk through the Artificial
Intelligence halls of fame and see what happens when three chat bots
(Eliza, ALICE and Shallow Red) have a conversation."

Botspot reviews various bots - some of which have numerous web applications
in search engines & ecommerce. I'd like to take the optimistic POV &hope
that they'll be used to help rather than hinder people on the web.

Cheers

Jeff



                                                                                                                                  
                    Rick Welykochy                                                                                                
                    <rick@praxis.co        To:     "Pilcher, Fred" <Fred.Pilcher@act.gov.au>                                      
                    m.au>                  cc:     Link mailing list <link@www.anu.edu.au>                                        
                    Sent by:               Fax to:                                                                                
                    owner-link@www.        Subject:     Re: [LINK] Telstra - talking to a machine                                 
                    anu.edu.au                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                  
                    13/11/2001                                                                                                    
                    11:31 AM                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                  




"Pilcher, Fred" wrote:

> "This system advises that its program cannot permit that course of
action."
> vs. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave."
>
> What was the program that challenged people to distinguish between its
> responses and those of a human?

The Eliza program (computer-based 'counsellor') doesn't make the challenge,
but in one reported incident, a uni staff member thought Eliza was a chat
connection to another staff member, used it for a chat and was none the
wiser that he was communicating with a 'puter.

The challenge you mention is the Turing Test: a computer that can fool
a person into thinking that they are communicating with another person
passes the test. AFAIK, the challenge gas not yet been met.







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