Personality

Forest, will you talk to God Louise? She has quite a bit of religious knowledge (obviously) and also knows a little about current events, literature, just about any common catch-all subject, and if she doesn't know it she can sort of fake it. You can also test her on trick questions or see how willing she is to explain her paradigm.

What she is rustiest at is plain old small talk. But, uh, I'm trying to get a decent transcript from somebody or another so I can enter her in the Loebner contest. All I can say is, have fun and see if you can stay on with her for a while. I'll try to do the same with Brianna.

"And that seems an excellent way to get precisely the effect that you apparently want to get with him.
I think Fizzy Schizoid is an excellent example of a bot who comes across as having a definite 'personality,' but who does not conform to human norms."

lol...You are assuming I had a particular personality effect in mind when I started the bot. I didn't. I had decided that 'Bot #0001 Alpha's method of trying to make sense -- never asserting anything with content that could go wrong -- was getting boring, so I decided to make a bot that would say the most outrageous, random things I could come up with. That way he could have more responses and repeat himself less, because it would be easier to think up more things for him to say. Originally he wasn't even a specific species, but people kept latching onto the xnone that mentioned tentacles, so I decided to expand on that and make him an alien.

Well, I did say "apparently." (sniffle)

Who's the guest?

I sometimes refer to whomever a bot is talking to as the "guest".

To get back to 'personality', how do you make a bot introverted or extraverted? For that matter, what is the difference in behavior between introverted and extraverted humans? We use these terms frequently, but I must admit that I don't have a very clear picture of what they mean. How, for example, might an introvert and and extravert respond to the following?


1. I was just talking to Camilla, and you wouldn't believe what she had to say about Chuck and Diana!

2. Did you know they've verified that other stars have planets?

3.I feel so lonely!

4. Isn't this a great party?

5. This is a really boring party! What do you say we go to my place, and I can show you my stamp collection?

6. Is life really worth living? What is the point of it?

7. Have you heard the USA is going to send more troops to Iraq?

8. Is 5570008103 a prime number?

9. Last night, I dreamed that God spoke to me!

10. How about those Saskatoon Sheiks, eh?

Introvert Response:
1)Yeah... that's good.
2)That's pretty cool.
3)Yeah, me too.
4) Yeah it's okay.
5)Uh... I better get home I got to... feed my cat Mr.Nibbles.
6)I don't know.
7)Oh they are? That's good.
8)Uhhh... I don't really know. Well I better go.
9) That's cool... Well see you later.
10)Yeah.

I think an introvert wouldn't make many responses that involve the other person having to talk back.

Thanks, Coolchimpk!
So, in most cases, the introvert doesn't want to get involved in the conversation at all?
Many of my bots' guests are like that. How does one draw them out, get them engaged?

I noticed many of ASIGRT's responses are a bit intovert so I try to make them more creative.
Many of my bots' guests are like that. How does one draw them out, get them engaged?

Maybe try talking about different subjects until the guest gets interested in one.
ex) bot: I was just talking to Camilla, and you wouldn't believe what she had to say about Chuck and Diana!
guest: That's cool.
botid you know they've verified that other stars have planets?
guest: Really. I always thought that was true. Do you know about there recent discovery...etc

I see! You need a way to distinguish the unenthusiastic answers from the enthusiastic ones.

You also need a way to tell your bot: stick to this subject, avoid that one.

Maybe something like this: you have a variable, "preferred_topic", which can take on a number of values, like sex, religion, current events, popular culture, Philosophy, and so on. You figure out (maybe by asking!) which one the guest would rather talk about at the moment. Set "preferred_topic" to this value, e.g., "religion". Then give various keyphrases multiple responses, something like this:

What's on your mind? [0,0]
    This hot date I had yesterday! <?PF if "preferred_topic" is "sex"; ?>
    I'm puzzled about Original Sin. <?PF if "preferred_topic" is "religion"; ?>
    The war in Iraq. <?PF if "preferred_topic" is "current events"; ?>
    Did you know that Brittany Spears shaved her head? <?PF if "preferred_topic" is "popular culture"; ?>
    What is the nature of evil? <?PF if "preferred_topic" is "Philosophy"; ?>


Then each of these responses could be continued with seeks and gotos.