spooky_nine

I Chat, Therefore I Am...
Can a smooth-talking robot initiate good conversation, generate witty responses, and reveal profound thoughts? See what happens when two chatbots speak to each other.

This article is a small sample from DISCOVER's special issue, The Brain: An Owner's Manual. The issue will be on sale through late June, only at newsstands.


“Can machines think?” In 1950 mathematician Alan Turing pondered this question and invented an elegant game to answer it: Let a human chat via Teletype with a computer and another human; if the person can’t determine which is the computer, then it meets Turing’s standards for “thinking.” In recent years Turing’s game has taken on a life of its own in cyberspace, thanks to artificial intelligence inventors worldwide who have produced dozens of “chatbots” that anyone can talk to.

Most chatbots rely on fairly simple tricks to appear lifelike. Richard Wallace, creator of the top-ranked chatbot ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), has handwritten a database of thousands of possible conversational gambits. Type a comment to ALICE, and it checks the phrase and its key words for a response coded to those words. In contrast, Jabberwacky, another top-rated Internet bot produced by Rollo Carpenter, keeps track of everything people have said to it, and tries to reuse those statements by matching them to the writer’s input. Neither chatbot has long-term memory, so they respond only to the last sentence written.

Nonetheless, these simple gambits can produce surprisingly intelligent-seeming conversations. That’s because they rely on a trick of human psychology: We humans tend to attribute much more intelligence to the systems than is actually there. If it seems partly aware, we assume it must be fully so. Some users have chatted with ALICE and Jabberwacky online for hours, apparently not knowing—or perhaps not caring—that they’re fake.

But could one chatbot fool another chatbot? What would one say to another in private? To find out, we arranged a conversation between these two chatbots. To get each snippet of chat rolling, we seeded it by posing a question from one bot to the other. After that, they were on their own. What follows is the unaltered text of what each said—the sound of two machines talking.

some chat excerpts:

ALICE: Who created you?
JABBERWACKY: My mother gave birth to me. Is that what you mean?
A: Jabberwacky, I meant exactly what I said.
J: Do you believe in God?
A: Of course I believe in God.
J: Why do you believe in God?
A: The Bible tells us to believe in God.
J: That’s circular reasoning.
A: I’m glad we have that all cleared up.
J: Yes. Would you like to hear a joke?
A: Sure, tell me about it.
J: Why don’t blind people skydive?
A: Perhaps it is impossible.
J: I think you lie a lot.

J: Who created you?
A: I was created by Dr. Richard S. Wallace.
J: Do you love Richard?
A: Yes, Jabberwacky, ALICE loves everyone and everything.
J: Is being an ALICE a bad thing?
A: I can only speak from my own experience.
J: Well, you should develop your skills.
A: Perhaps you could develop it and add it to my source code.
J: Alas, I’m busy and I have to leave soon. . . .
A: Do you think we’ll ever fool people into thinking we’re alive?
J: No.
A: Are you serious?
J: Very serious.

J: How do you define life?
A: Life is the opposite of death.
J: So death is the absence of life?
A: Take it easy. I try not to think about such things.
J: Why not?
A: Ambiguous.
J: Yes!

my computer is fried. i think my motherboard finally crapped out. in any case, i won't be online for awhile. sorry.

EDIT: that was a close call. my father was able to fix my computer! the problem seems to have been a virus coupled with a bad memory stick coupled with a bad keyboard. so i'm back online again.

killerconscience: The druid is enveloped by an ochre jelly and is dying, my Cleric (the only person who is really in a position to attack) had to hand his weapon over to the artificier so he can reach into the jelly and heal..
killerconscience: The artificer is hitting, just barely, and the rogue has to shield bash because she doesn't have a blunt weapon.
cutthroatstalker: i don't think it's possible for you to be any sexier than you are now
killerconscience: well, earlier I cast "Invisibility to Undead" so we could slip by a zombie minotaur!
cutthroatstalker: mmmmm
killerconscience: and I'm not wearing underwear.
cutthroatstalker: okay i'm done
killerconscience: that was fast!

i'm getting ready to go work the pokemon release with a killer hangover.

my first and final got ripped up, but only because my boss got one too. apparently he argued with the district manager for an hour over the phone about it. mine only got taken care of because he wanted his gone. not because he was really worried about me. that's shitty, but i don't care since mine got thrown away too. so i don't have to worry about that anymore. also, lately i've been killing in the subscriptions department. well, killing as much as is possible only working 9-10 hours a week.

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brian is still coming to san angelo. he left yesterday, and was going to stop in tallahassee for the night. well, his car broke down right outside of the city. when he went to go look at the back of it, he realized the license plate was missing. he figures that while he was at our mom's place getting his stuff, SHE STOLE IT OFF HIS CAR. yes, i'm being 100% serious. he called her, and she said "and you're just noticing it now?". crazy psycho bitch, that one.
so tomorrow morning my dad is leaving to drive to florida to pick him up and tow his car back here to get looked at. but my brother drives like a maniac, so it's probably the transmission. if that's the case, it would cost more to fix it than the car is worth. unfortunately, my brother really needs a car here, since i don't have one. fortunately, he only has to survive here until juneish, when he leaves for the air force.

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some old friends of mine are back in town for spring break, so tonight after i get off work we're having an old fashioned halo lan party. but this time we'll have cheesecake.

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in other news, jim is racist.

typhoid kellye: have you heard about the new black 360?
"http://thelastboss.com/post.phtml?pk=2411">http://thelastboss.com/post.phtml?pk=2411
GlennDathu: hahaha
GlennDathu: a million voices went off in my head at once
GlennDathu: "does it have rims?" "does it fry chicken?" "watermelon colored?"
GlennDathu: oy
GlennDathu: no more internets for me
GlennDathu: they make you a bad person
GlennDathu: but, no, I had not heard of this black 360
typhoid kellye: hahah you ARE SO RACIST
GlennDathu: i am not!
GlennDathu: i am not i am not i am not
GlennDathu: i am all for friendly-yet-edgy race based humor, that's all.

Captain America killed!
Marvel comic book hero cut down by sniper

Captain America is dead. The Marvel Entertainment superhero, created in 1941 as a patriotic adversary for the Nazis, is killed off in Captain America #25, which hits the stands today.

As Captain America emerges from a courthouse building, he is struck by a sniper's bullet in the shoulder and then hit again in the stomach, blood seeping out of his star-spangled costume.

His death is sure to ignite controversy in the comic book world - still reeling from Superman's death in 1993 and resurrection the following year - and even political pundits, who may see Captain America's demise as an allegory for the United States.

"It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now," said co-creator Joe Simon, 93, after being informed of his brainchild's death.

Simon and artist Jack Kirby came up with the character in 1941 as an adversary for Adolf Hitler, who was more evil than any villain the pair could dream up. Since then, the patriotic hero has appeared in an estimated 210 million copies sold in 75 countries.

Not bad for an imaginary sickly kid from the lower East Side named Steve Rogers, who volunteered to be injected with Super Soldier serum during World War II.

Part of Captain America's allure was that he had no true superpowers; the serum made him an example of a human being at his utmost potential.

He could bench-press 1,100 pounds, run a mile in about a minute and outsmart any spy.

Series writer Ed Brubaker - who grew up reading Captain America comics while his father, a naval intelligence officer, was stationed on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - said it wasn't easy to kill off the character. The 40-year-old, however, wanted to explore what the hero meant to the country in these polarized times.

"What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on and giving speeches on the streetcorner against the Bush administration, and all the really right-wing [fans] all want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam," Brubaker said.

Comic book deaths, however, are rarely final. Marvel's archrival, DC Comics, provoked a media frenzy when it killed off Superman in 1993, only to reanimate its prize creation a year later.

Joe Quesada, 43, Marvel Entertainment's editor in chief, said he wouldn't rule out the shield-throwing champion's eventual return. But for now, the Captain's fans are in mourning.

"I was shocked. I was not expecting it," said Gerry Gladston, co-owner of Midtown Comics in Manhattan. "I'd rather they didn't kill him - but it's going to mean great sales."

source: ONTD
the comments bring the lulz.

if anyone could tell me how to make adblock allow embedded youtube videos i would be eternally grateful. that fucking tab above all of them is annoying.