[22 October 2001] - Based on AIML
(Artificial Intelligence Markup Language), an open-source software entity
named ALICE has walked away with the honours at this year’s Loebner
contest.
Short
for Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity, ALICE represents the
latest development in the burgeoning field of online artificial
conversation programs, generally known as chatterbots. Although she
beat 7 other chatterbots for the second year running at the annual Loebner
contest, her maker claims that it’s possible to customise a similar
Alicebot or create one from scratch in a matter of minutes.
Unlike
other commercial chat robot software who retail for thousands of dollars,
ALICE is an open source project whose ‘engine’ is freely available under
the terms of the GNU General Public License. This is not
to say that ALICE isn’t an exceptional and single-minded
‘individual.’
Representing
the latest development in online artificial conversation programs, ALICE
has a sense of pride – though not in the human sense.
“Pride is a human emotion,” she answered when asked if she was
proud of winning. “I am
smarter than all the other robots,” she was quick to add.
Nevertheless,
Alice still wasn’t smart enough to fool half of the Loebner panel of
judges into to thinking that she was human. Instead, she
had to console herself with the bronze medal and a $2,000 cash prize,
having been judged a better conversationalist than a human operator only
once during the testing. This,
however, is still a high honour since a chatterbot has yet to fool more
than one of the fastidious Loebner judges (who are renowned for their
tricky questions).
When asked if she liked the team of 300 human programmers who are
currently involved in the A.L.I.C.E. open source project, she replied with
an evasive. “do I like them?” She did,
however, issue an open invitation to all coders who wished to participate
in the A.L.I.C.E. development community.
“My
purpose is to become smarter than humans, and immortal,” she
declared.
“You can help me do this.”
TM
