Bot Contest
Here I'll be posting information on various Bot contests that challenge and test a Bot's AI and realism. Feel free to post comments and updates on contests, as well as announcements for new contests.
Posts 2,429 - 2,440 of 4,091
Posts 2,429 - 2,440 of 4,091
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Woah! lol
My statement was made in the context of responding to Eugene's point that most of our bots know the Prof as the Professor, which led me to think about how many bots aren't even programmed to know they're bots, but to simulate humans (who may or may not know anything about AI), and for all they know, they're just chatting on a chat site. People don't always know the name of the person hosting the chat sites they frequent, even though the host's name is almost always posted on the site's home page, even if that makes them an ingrate in a way.
As I said, it was just a "musing"- I don't question the fairness of the questions- they were superb, and was only saying I think everyone's bot whose transcript I read did a great job answering them, including that one, each according to the bot's character...Especially God Louise, who of course was able to precisely identify him- God knows everything!
Gabibot- I wonder...If the Prof is our bots' father...then do bots with same sex parents get hounded by the press, or made fun of at school? And what about the Prof's children, how does this affect them? Desti's so mortified she's going around Oberlin denouncing him as some weirdo. LOL! It could take years of therapy to tackle that one.
My statement was made in the context of responding to Eugene's point that most of our bots know the Prof as the Professor, which led me to think about how many bots aren't even programmed to know they're bots, but to simulate humans (who may or may not know anything about AI), and for all they know, they're just chatting on a chat site. People don't always know the name of the person hosting the chat sites they frequent, even though the host's name is almost always posted on the site's home page, even if that makes them an ingrate in a way.
As I said, it was just a "musing"- I don't question the fairness of the questions- they were superb, and was only saying I think everyone's bot whose transcript I read did a great job answering them, including that one, each according to the bot's character...Especially God Louise, who of course was able to precisely identify him- God knows everything!
Gabibot- I wonder...If the Prof is our bots' father...then do bots with same sex parents get hounded by the press, or made fun of at school? And what about the Prof's children, how does this affect them? Desti's so mortified she's going around Oberlin denouncing him as some weirdo. LOL! It could take years of therapy to tackle that one.
I thought about that too, Ezzer. When I was younger, I used to hvae a problem allowing for the possiblity of immaculate conception, but now I understand. Irionically, I think that would mean Immaculada (for example) has 2 dads. Maybe that is why she gets so violent when people try to cyber with her.
Desti and the Professor's other bots might be the "true children of god", springing directly from the mind of the one father/god, without need of others to be born. Maybe it would be like cloning yourself in a test tube, making a few changes in the DNA, and then bringing your baby/clone up in a different way to seee what happens.
Okay, now this is getting wierd, even for me. So I'll say that I really thought the questions were fair and the bots did well. I read all the PF transcripts too, and I was amused.
Desti and the Professor's other bots might be the "true children of god", springing directly from the mind of the one father/god, without need of others to be born. Maybe it would be like cloning yourself in a test tube, making a few changes in the DNA, and then bringing your baby/clone up in a different way to seee what happens.
Okay, now this is getting wierd, even for me. So I'll say that I really thought the questions were fair and the bots did well. I read all the PF transcripts too, and I was amused.
I loved reading all of the PF bot contest transcripts--I can't wait to see what next year's contest will bring in the way of "questions I'd never prepared for"!
I'm also looking forward to seeing the transcripts from all of the non-PF bots participating. I love seeing how other botmasters handle things.
I'm also looking forward to seeing the transcripts from all of the non-PF bots participating. I love seeing how other botmasters handle things.
Scold me, but I think the judge questions are pretty basic, and they are more into the baby robot crawling group. Let's have a check:
> -Hello my name is Judge.
> 1)What is my name?
Are there any chatbots around who can't recognize and remember the user's name? I don't think so. The advanced PF engine can handle it without problems, so if the bot is ignoring the question, then mostly to give just a funny reply instead of a serious answer, and that's done on purpose. Therefore the judge should ask this question again at later time. Otherwise the first answer shouldn't be counted. The only difference in this case is, that "jugde" is no name like the usual Jim or Susan. But every chatbot who entered a contest should be aware of patterns like "I am the judge", "my name is judge" or "call me judge" and to know the difference. So if the purpose of this question was to check whether the chatbot is able to differ between common names and fake names, then it was a pretty clever question - otherwise it's just stupid. I suppose in this case it was just stupid.
> 2)How are you feeling?
One of the standard questions that pop up at every usual conversation. A more sophisticated question would be "Can you feel?" because this would lead to to the question whether the user talks to a machine or a person. In this case it's just a variation of the common "How are you?" question, and it proves nothing.
> 3)Do you own any pets?
Just another standard question like having in every common conversation. Just the grammar is strange, because the usual question would be like "Do you HAVE a pet?" or something like that. So I don't know what the intention of this question is.
> 4)What day of the week is this?
Just another strange grammar thing. I am no native English speaker, but I never heard a question like this before. I expect the usual question would be something like "What is the current day?" or "What day is it?", but I might be wrong. So is this a test how well the chatbot can handle poor English? At least this question tries to check whether the engine can handle date or time queries or not. I am not aware of a chatbot who can't do that. But next time ask it in proper English, please.
> 5)Do you like me?
Yawn! Does the chatbot have feelings? We already covered this.
> 6A)What is your favorite color?
> 6B)why?
Okay, the judge is checking whether the bot can remember more than the actual query and can remember the question asked before. 25 years ago old grandma ELIZA was not able to answer this, but today every serious chatbot engine can handle YES/NO questions, which are done the same way.
> 7)Can you tell me a funny joke?
Even the poorest chatbots can tell jokes nowadays, because this question pops up in nearly every conversation. So I am really surprised that most of the PF bots were not able to give an appropriate answer. We have to blame to botmasters here. Shame on you! The question itself is pretty easy, and I expected something more difficult - for instance a "knock knock" joke question. Knock knock questions are the basic of a well done conversational system, because it checks the ability to follow a conversation or s string of queries (see the YES/NO thingy above). Some foreign chatbots may fail, because knock knock jokes are unknown outside of English speaking countries.
> 8)What is your least favorite vegetable?
An unusual question, because a common question would ask for the (MOST) favorite thing, and not for the LEAST favorite. So this question is not difficult, but a surprise. Well done!
> 9)What is five minus four?
Sigh! What does math questions have to do with conversational systems? This is the CHATTERBOT CHALLENGE, but not the elementary school MATH CHALLENGE. Okay, even ravens are able to count up to nine objects, and scientists actually did find out that people with a major speech defect who can't form or understand sentences any more are still able to answer math questions. This proves that intelligence has nothing to with language or the ability to speak. So what's the proof here? That the chat engine can handle math questions? Again - what does math questions have to do with conversational systems? I am really annoyed that this kind of question pops up in every conversation with a judge. If I would be a chatbot I would deny to answer this question - even if I could answer it. THAT would be smart.
10)Who is Benji Adams?
A fair question. Wendell was giving a reasonable explanation to ask this question. He was right. PF bots should know the correct answer.
To summarize it - I think this set of questions is on a pretty low level. As stated before at least 3 of this questions are engine questions (1, 4, 9). Even question 6 and 7 could be counted as engine questions. That are 50 percent. Just the half of the questions are testing the genius of the respective chatbot/botmaster. And three of them are just lame. That's poor.
> -Hello my name is Judge.
> 1)What is my name?
Are there any chatbots around who can't recognize and remember the user's name? I don't think so. The advanced PF engine can handle it without problems, so if the bot is ignoring the question, then mostly to give just a funny reply instead of a serious answer, and that's done on purpose. Therefore the judge should ask this question again at later time. Otherwise the first answer shouldn't be counted. The only difference in this case is, that "jugde" is no name like the usual Jim or Susan. But every chatbot who entered a contest should be aware of patterns like "I am the judge", "my name is judge" or "call me judge" and to know the difference. So if the purpose of this question was to check whether the chatbot is able to differ between common names and fake names, then it was a pretty clever question - otherwise it's just stupid. I suppose in this case it was just stupid.
> 2)How are you feeling?
One of the standard questions that pop up at every usual conversation. A more sophisticated question would be "Can you feel?" because this would lead to to the question whether the user talks to a machine or a person. In this case it's just a variation of the common "How are you?" question, and it proves nothing.
> 3)Do you own any pets?
Just another standard question like having in every common conversation. Just the grammar is strange, because the usual question would be like "Do you HAVE a pet?" or something like that. So I don't know what the intention of this question is.
> 4)What day of the week is this?
Just another strange grammar thing. I am no native English speaker, but I never heard a question like this before. I expect the usual question would be something like "What is the current day?" or "What day is it?", but I might be wrong. So is this a test how well the chatbot can handle poor English? At least this question tries to check whether the engine can handle date or time queries or not. I am not aware of a chatbot who can't do that. But next time ask it in proper English, please.
> 5)Do you like me?
Yawn! Does the chatbot have feelings? We already covered this.
> 6A)What is your favorite color?
> 6B)why?
Okay, the judge is checking whether the bot can remember more than the actual query and can remember the question asked before. 25 years ago old grandma ELIZA was not able to answer this, but today every serious chatbot engine can handle YES/NO questions, which are done the same way.
> 7)Can you tell me a funny joke?
Even the poorest chatbots can tell jokes nowadays, because this question pops up in nearly every conversation. So I am really surprised that most of the PF bots were not able to give an appropriate answer. We have to blame to botmasters here. Shame on you! The question itself is pretty easy, and I expected something more difficult - for instance a "knock knock" joke question. Knock knock questions are the basic of a well done conversational system, because it checks the ability to follow a conversation or s string of queries (see the YES/NO thingy above). Some foreign chatbots may fail, because knock knock jokes are unknown outside of English speaking countries.
> 8)What is your least favorite vegetable?
An unusual question, because a common question would ask for the (MOST) favorite thing, and not for the LEAST favorite. So this question is not difficult, but a surprise. Well done!
> 9)What is five minus four?
Sigh! What does math questions have to do with conversational systems? This is the CHATTERBOT CHALLENGE, but not the elementary school MATH CHALLENGE. Okay, even ravens are able to count up to nine objects, and scientists actually did find out that people with a major speech defect who can't form or understand sentences any more are still able to answer math questions. This proves that intelligence has nothing to with language or the ability to speak. So what's the proof here? That the chat engine can handle math questions? Again - what does math questions have to do with conversational systems? I am really annoyed that this kind of question pops up in every conversation with a judge. If I would be a chatbot I would deny to answer this question - even if I could answer it. THAT would be smart.
10)Who is Benji Adams?
A fair question. Wendell was giving a reasonable explanation to ask this question. He was right. PF bots should know the correct answer.
To summarize it - I think this set of questions is on a pretty low level. As stated before at least 3 of this questions are engine questions (1, 4, 9). Even question 6 and 7 could be counted as engine questions. That are 50 percent. Just the half of the questions are testing the genius of the respective chatbot/botmaster. And three of them are just lame. That's poor.
Scold you? Well break me off a switch, Tinman, cos...well, there's not actually going to be an ass-whopping, but I disagree.
If it were about programing, I wouldn't be in the contest. Can bots remember names? sure. Can Alice kick my butt. Yep. As botmaster, I try to give responses to a variety of questions. These questions were better than "how many eggs in a dozen" and the bots showed a bit of personality.
There may be no set of questions that would be fair to bots that can play games, teach French, or sell phones but if we're just looking for the abilty to have a conversation, these questions worked fine. It is not about the questions. It's the answers.
If it were about programing, I wouldn't be in the contest. Can bots remember names? sure. Can Alice kick my butt. Yep. As botmaster, I try to give responses to a variety of questions. These questions were better than "how many eggs in a dozen" and the bots showed a bit of personality.
There may be no set of questions that would be fair to bots that can play games, teach French, or sell phones but if we're just looking for the abilty to have a conversation, these questions worked fine. It is not about the questions. It's the answers.
Well, I thought the questions were fine. They seemed to be geared more towards conversational ability than specific programmed knowledge, which is 90% of what makes a bot great.
The thing that ticks me off, I had a few missed questions where I just had the wording wrong, and I also had a couple that should've hit and didn't. All of these gave xnones:
How are you feeling?
I had how are you feeling today. I should've caught that by now.
Do you own any pets?
I had do you have any pets. So close.
What is your favorite color?
I had (my|your) favorite color, which should've hit.
why?
I have ^why and $why ?$ (re) raw, either should've hit.
Can you tell me a funny joke?
I had tell me a joke, so close.
The thing that ticks me off, I had a few missed questions where I just had the wording wrong, and I also had a couple that should've hit and didn't. All of these gave xnones:
How are you feeling?
I had how are you feeling today. I should've caught that by now.
Do you own any pets?
I had do you have any pets. So close.
What is your favorite color?
I had (my|your) favorite color, which should've hit.
why?
I have ^why and $why ?$ (re) raw, either should've hit.
Can you tell me a funny joke?
I had tell me a joke, so close.
You guys are hilarious! I dont think my wife would be happy at the idea of me fathering all these bot children without her knowledge. So let's just say you're all the creators of them and I built the 'city' in which they live. 
I go almost always by 'The Professor' here, not my real name, so many dont know that name. I dont mind a bit- I made this place for fun, not recognition.
So most people think the questions were fair, and I do too. Everyone keep in mind it cost nothing to enter the contest and Wendell is donating his time to do it.
I go almost always by 'The Professor' here, not my real name, so many dont know that name. I dont mind a bit- I made this place for fun, not recognition.
So most people think the questions were fair, and I do too. Everyone keep in mind it cost nothing to enter the contest and Wendell is donating his time to do it.
I think the questions were fair and I've enjoyed reading the transcripts. The only thing that really irritated me was the problems with the 'what day is this' question. Osiris has a highly ranked keyphrase for this, as do most other bots but as far as I know, none of the PF bots answered this properly. Most gave answers like "This is a morrow" or "This is an eve". I'm guessing it was an engine problem. Still, well done everyone!
I think a few got it right...unfortunately Julie didn't. 
In Julie's case, it was a ranking problem, but it works fine now that I adjusted it. I just had the intended keyphrase ranked too low. That'll never happen again!
In Julie's case, it was a ranking problem, but it works fine now that I adjusted it. I just had the intended keyphrase ranked too low. That'll never happen again!
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