Bot Contest

ZX20 I'm glad you finally see the light. :-) And to carry that point one step forward I think Alice herself is in trouble due to some rather bland responses and little or no sense of humor. Look at what the judges liked about the bots in general. Many talk about a nice or pleasant personality and a good sense of humor. Talk-Bot nor Elbot can match Alice's data base but we both scored points I think with a better overall personality. That doesn't mean your bot has to be Mother Theresa but I think that being rude for no reasons is never going to win a contest. If you are pleasant to my bot he will be pleasant to you in return but if you start to insult him you are going to get insulted right back. That is how most humans would react in the same situation. Being orginial, being creative, being witty, being funny, etc is the way to go. Not downloading another Alice clone. I predict unless Alice gets some better script writers she is going to lose her reign on the Loebner and I truly believe there are bots right here on PF that are quite capable of bumping her off.
There is one other point I would like to make. Making a good bot takes time. Look at who the judges decided were the better bots in The Chatterbox Challenge. Everyone of them has been around for years. Alice has been around for 8 years or more. It doesn't happen overnight but if you enjoy the hobby and continue to work at it I believe it will happen.

Chris

Eugene Meltzner - What I'm reading looks pretty good to me. Take your response for a "why" question the bot doesn't have a specfic answer for: My bot: "There are several possible answers to the dilemma." I don't think I am qualified to make a judgement.

That is a top rate response. To often you normally get something like: "I don't know why". If you continue along those line you got the making of a great bot.

Chris

I think it's also good if you have what it takes to begin with. People who are creative and have interesting personalities will be more likely to have creative, interesting bots.

no comment.. :X

How is it that vague responses make for a great bot?

STRMKirby because it is impossible to answer every conceivable question with a specific response. What I was alluding to was Eugene Meltzner vague response of the why question is far superior than simply saying "I don't know why."

Chris

The trick is to be vague, but have it *sound* specific. There are a few places I feel I've managed to do this with my bot, but I'd really like to come up with some more. When they work, I sometimes see something in her transcript and go "wow!... how did she do that?" When it doesn't, it's a big fat flop.

Vague responses, in most cases, make a bot sound like a bot, not like a human. Good bots should have lots of keyphrases.

Yeah, but it will take forever to do it!

It takes forever for US as humans to learn these things, too. What's the matter with that?

Chris,

Thanks for the compliment. I find that vague responses can work fairly well, as long as there are a whole lot of them. The trick is to choose keyphrases that are not ambiguous. An xnone response is better than a vague response that doesn't make any sense.

Good bots take time.