[ucc] Current technology

[Tom Lynch]

Chatbots:

http://megahal.alioth.debian.org/

Current homepage of Jason Hutchens' chatbot MegaHAL (has been 
around for ages, this guy used to be a UWA PhD student, and 
according to the page I just looked at he's since worked on AI 
for Black and White).

http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html

Homepage of the Loebner Prize, an annual competition devoted to 
creating an AI that passes the Turing Test.  Hasn't been done 
yet.

http://www.abenteuermedien.de/jabberwock/chatterbotfaq_en.html

Another chatterbot page for last year's winner.

IIRC MegaHAL uses Markov models to generate candidate sentences 
for conversation, and an entropy model to choose good candidates 
from those generated based on 'surprising' words in whatever the 
interlocutor just said.

Tom.


* Rob <ack at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au> [2004-06-14 13:08:21 +0800]:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> I have two questions here, which are sort of related.
> 
> One)
> What is the current state of voice recognition technology?  Is it still a
> tricky, tedious business, requiring careful pronounciation into a solid
> mike, and how accurately does it translate your words into electronic
> text?  What is the quality of top-of-the-line products and downloaded
> freeware?
> 
> Two)
> Whats the state of "chat-bots"? How well can a program "learn" new stuff,
> and use it in a conversation with a person?  Again, is there a marked
> difference between expensive products and free/shareware programs in terms
> of functionality?
> 
> Anyone with information on these matters, I await the response.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Rob
> 
> "I have too much respect for the truth to drag it out on every trifling
> occasion"
>         Twain, M

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