Instant Messenger or Instant Advertiser?

Shadow2097 writes: "ABC News is running this moderately disturbing story about a new, highly targeted form of advertising. Two companies, SmarterChild.com and ActiveBuddy.com have teamed up to deliver interactive Instant Messenger bots that talk to children and deliver ever-so-subtle ads for various products. Just when you think market saturation has reached the limit, leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is."

Comments

Active Buddy?

[digitalunity]

Great, push technology again. This time, they can IM you big files. So, can I get p0rn pushed to my computer?

Re:Active Buddy?

[Betrayal]

Push is not a technology. Push is a political agendum.

Re:Active Buddy?

[MeNTyFReSh]

Whats wrong with p0rn on your comp?

Re:Active Buddy?

[digitalunity]

Nothing. P0rn is awesome. I was hoping for a zero-effort pOrn delivery system. Maybe this is it?

Re:Active Buddy?

[Anonymous Coward]

You totally misunderstand. NOT a push technology. It's infact probably the least pushy form of advertisement. They've encorporated user's concerns and here's what they do:

A) they don't send files.
B) they only respond to your IMs, no more than one per IM that you send.

They're curious and even useful, like a slave or a command prompt. You can ask for weather info or movie info.

Re:Active Buddy?

[Anonymous Coward]

leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is."

They have started targeting slashdot users?

Re:Active Buddy?

[LordKariya]

The problem is that kids are being targetted. They can't tell the difference between a bot and a random user. Most adults can't, either.

Well is this just doesn't take the cake

[ahuimanu]

Utter crap.

BTW, look for any companies distantly related to big tobacco in the "subtle ads." If they are not there now... they will be.

Sigh...

J

Re:Well is this just doesn't take the cake

[Desco]

They're gonna be sued just like Big Tobacco. They're targetting kids, which is already a questionable strategy (why ICQ makes you admit you are older than 13), and they are being disingenuous.

-d-

Re:Well is this just doesn't take the cake

[Anonymous Coward]

You 'truth' people are really starting to annoy me. Those tv ads are the dumbest crap I've ever seen in my life.

Re:Well is this just doesn't take the cake

[Mr Teddy Bear]

I'm sorry, but I just don't see what the big deal is here. If your kid can read.. then they should be able to understand that this bot is not real. If they can't, then they need some serious education. Come on people, with all the other crap to jump all over, why pick this company? They are not doing anything wrong. In fact.. I use "SmarterChild" and it helps me. It will give me my horoscope, movie times for my area, translate stuff for me, etc. It is actually a good service.

It's my birthday, mod me up. (no seriously.. today IS my birthday. hehe)

most naive?

[magicslax]

Just when you think market saturation has reached the limit, leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is."

what's that, im addicts??

wow thats scary

[KaizerWill]

especially since its targeted towards children.

How is this anything new?

[sniepre]

Frankly, i dont see this as a "disturbing trend"...

I see it as the continuation of marketing strategies employed since television existed....

How many of you remember Lucky Charms or Tony the Tiger telling you how GGGrrrrreat!! his cereal was, or Ronald McDonald telling you how fantastic a happy meal was from McDonald's.

Wether its on the television or on the web, it's the same principle at work, IMHO.

Re:How is this anything new?

[nomadic]

Yes, and that's what disturbing. Just like television advertisements that target children, only these are, astoundingly enough, worse, as they try to trick kids into thinking they're engaging in a conversation.

And what excuse is given in response to the moral questions? We have to make a profit. Disgusting.

Re:How is this anything new?

[set]

You have a good point, but the way this is presented, it seems like it's more subliminal than would be allowed on television. Furthermore, with television you can do something else during commercials.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Suppafly]

Not sure about Active Buddy.. but SmarterChild is obviously not like talking to an eliza type program that convinces you to buy things. SmarterChild is more like an interactive program that can play text based games with you and give you information such as weather and stocks. You'd be hard pressed to trick anyone that can read that they are talking to anything other than a computer script.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're missing the point. TV (and radio and newspaper and Web site) ads are there to pay for content. I didn't see anything in the story that suggested these companies paid the IM networks to let them online.

It may be legal. I will grant you that. But at least most media will label something as "advertisement" when it's not obvious that it is an ad. Go look at a newspaper and you'll see what I am talking about.

This is not advertising, it is deception. And it preys on people that haven't yet learned the difference.

Re:How is this anything new?

[zaffir]

What, you can't close the IM app or hit the "ignore" button for SmarterChild's account?

Re:How is this anything new?

[mgv]

And what excuse is given in response to the moral questions? We have to make a profit. Disgusting.

Nah, its a great excuse. Ask any drug dealer.

Michael

Re:How is this anything new?

[rawb]

>>And what excuse is given in response to the moral questions? We have to make a profit. Disgusting.

Well when people refuse to invest in companies that DON'T make a profit, the primary function of every company becomes TO make a profit, because if they don't make one the company will die.

Imagine if people invested in these companies freely without expecting a return at all, investing simply because they thought it was a good technology to continue developing, then the "primary" goal of these companies wouldnt be making a profit because they wouldnt have to worry about that stuff. It's an endless cycle... investors demand profits and so naturally thats the company's first goal. If they don't get profits, they don't get investors, and they die out.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Polo]

Young kids don't understand they're being lied to...

Advertisers use this to their advantage when designing ads.

I think this is the same thing, but for a different (older) age group...

sigh.

Re:How is this anything new?

[sweet reason]

obviously not like talking to an eliza type program
You'd be hard pressed to trick anyone that can read that they are talking to anything other than a computer script.

when weizenbaum made eliza available on his campus system, lots of people started "talking" to it. when he proposed to log the conversations for analysis there was a huge outcry. people were telling eliza their problems and secrets!

it's amazing how little plausibility such a thing really needs. adults acted as if they were fooled. kids might well really be fooled. and even if they know intellectually that they are talking to a computer, all the advertizer really needs is that the "conversation" have the persuasive power of a real one. emotionally, it may well have.

Re:How is this anything new?

[rawb]

You guys are all freaking out... Smarterchild doesnt go IMing these children on its own. You have to IM it yourself, usually with a specific purpose in mind. The same is true of every active buddy bot. They arent trying to trick anyone at all; They provide a service and are hoping to get corporations interested in it. Their product does have real potential. Imagine each brand of detergent having their own IM SN, where you could ask them the best way to get a stain out, or could compare ingredients between each competing product. You won't hear any public outcry from me until these active buddy bots start amassing huge AIM lists and spamming people.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Yottabyte84]

The ignore button does not work on SmarterChild.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Suppafly]

yes, but unlike eliza, smarterchild doesn't pretend to be a person chatting with you.. it has text based menus and such.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Betrayal]

You seem to forget that this is reactive technology. It, like google, produces intelligent responses to input from the user. What will the corporate bot answer when a teenager will ask it about mp3s, drugs or abortions?

Re:How is this anything new?

[ictatha]

Imagine each brand of detergent having their own IM SN, where you could ask them the best way to get a stain out, or could compare ingredients between each competing product.

Wait! Wait! I've got it, what if (to continue your example) a brand of detergent could set up some kind of resource that could be accessed over the Internet, where they could even show graphics! And provide file downloads and nicely formatted things for printing... Maybe use some way to link together different files and other resources in a way that would make the resource fairly easy to use (if done right). Hmmm... but what to call this...

Re:How is this anything new?

[bskin]

Young kids don't understand they're being lied to...

No offense, but i don't think you've paid much attention to any young kids lately.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Anonymous Coward]

That means AOL is in on it too then!

Re:How is this anything new?

[rana]

You're right, this isn't anything new. As you all must have guessed by now, 90% of slashdot posts are generated by an overgrown Perl script.

Re:How is this anything new?

[clone304]

Or people could invest in companies that were doing something valuable and as such would be likely to make a profit. Just because theives, liars and politicians don't make their money that way, doesn't mean everyone else can't.

Or, we can take your road....

Lemme sell you on an idea... Let's start a business where we take capture homeless people, expecially children, kill them, butcher them, and sell them to fast food processing plants as raw material! I'd say we'd have a high profit margin, because homeless people are easy to sneak up on while they're sleeping, nobody will miss them and we don't have to breed and feed them like ranchers do with cattle. Would you like to invest? If not, would you like to be a customer? Or a customer of our customers?

.

Re:How is this anything new?

[rawb]

You know as well as I that company websites are cumbersome and annoying, not to mention they're usually nothing more than an advertisement. Technologies like Smarterchild have the potential to be in high demand when people realize they can just ask it a simple question and get a simple answer.

How do I get red wine out of a yellow towel? is a lot easier than trying to find the FAQ, deal with slow-loading pages, etc etc.

Re:How is this anything new?

[JS_RIDDLER]

I agree, it only responds to things you give it, the only out of place part, is a simple random TEXT ad, in a rotation. It has menu like commands only, and doesnt recognize anything out of context, or ends up doing a stock search for it.

Re:How is this anything new?

[manofherb]

Not all drug dealers make profits, some just do it for free drugs, others do it to help thier friends out so their friends don't have to go to some crazy crackhead down the block who rips them off or shorts them.
Although how can a drug dealer give an excuse to a "moral" question when his morals value using drugs? How do you determine what is moral and what isn't? Each and every person believes in different things, so who are you to tell someone they are wrong by doing something?

btw I'm in the "retirement" home so I know some things that others seeking employment may not.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Ed Avis]

Who would have thought that _spammers_ would be the first to make a system passing the Turing Test?

Okay, it's not quite at that level, but the fact that these bots are indistinguishable from real users for a few minutes is quite something.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Alex Belits]

The problem is, the conversation is hard to parse, so people will end up unsuccessfully trying to coerce the poorly cooperative bot to give the results they need. I have just pasted "How do I get red wine out of a yellow towel?" to askjeeves.com, and the results are absolutely worthless -- why would a bot do any better?

Conversation is a good way to interact with something that can parse the language and keep the context, so subsequent expressions actually can build some representation of ideas involved. Humans are good at that but computers are not, and even the theory that should be used for this isn't developed yet. So all bots can do is imitate things and pretend that they keep more context than what they are capable of. The end result is inferior to almost any kind of keyword-based search, leave alone a good menu-driven interface.

If a web site designers are too stupid to make information that the users need, accessible, it's their fault. They must understand that if someone taken a trouble to go to their web site they definitely are not there to see something they would see in a TV ad -- TV ad is to put something a person is not looking for, into his field of view and give something that can make him interested. Web site, unless it's supposed to show its main page as a popup, doesn't appear in front of someone's eyes unless he is already interested in things, so fluff, flash intros, slogans, images of happy customers, etc. are useless there. It's also very unlikely that the viewer is an investor, so prominent links to financial information and solicitation of investors won't be of any help unless link to "products and services" and "support" are ten times more noticeable than "investor's information". Same applies to press releases -- no, users do not go to the web page to read press releases, they more likely CAME from something derived from a press release than that they actually want to read anything of that kind, so please, no press releases on the home page, no "news" links more prominent than "Products" and certainly no scrolling Java or Flash with press releases. Or company history -- if you are so proud of it, make a link, but please don't flash it (literally and figuratively) in users' faces. Also it's very, very likely that the user is not going to look for announcement or especially pre-announcements of new products before going to the catalogs or support page, so please no giant vaporware announcement or even rotating "click here to see the future of dsyzsgepqrfsamication!" buttons. Users go to companies' web sites mostly to do something with products -- they do not go there to look at the "art" of the site design, or out of respect to the company, to recite press releases, history or biographies of executives -- and if you have executives' photos, be prepared to be the subject of "is he/she %@#$able?" thread at forum.%@#$edcompany.com.

Give a reasonable interface to:

1. Products/services catalog. This is what user very likely came to look at, and what is most likely to generate sales for you. You know, it's a new great idea -- that to sell something you have to offer it first.

2. Support information. This is another thing user will want to see there, and the more information he will get there, the less he will mumble on the phone with your minimum-wage customer support, or with overpaid but still brainless sales representative. And if you are by any chance in the technology business, expect that this area will be very popular at night, when engineers work, and your customer support or sales drones don't.

3. Contact information. If you have a web site, you want people to do something with you, and without being able to contact you it's rather pointless. If you dare to put "contact the local reseller, and no, we don't even know who they are" there, you can just as well shut down the site and spend the money on espresso machine for a break room instead instead of hosting or lines' fees -- it will be more useful for your business. Heck, even spending them on aeron chair would be more useful for your business.

4. Everything else is optional, however if you need money, no matter how much you will try to bring attention to "investor information", it will gain you nothing -- people who want to invest, will do so anyway, everyone else will be only annoyed. OTOH, if you need to hire someone, make a "jobs" section, and put there a reasonable job ad -- potential employees are likely to look at your site, if not in search of your "jobs" section then just because they work in the same or related business and need your products, or are curious about what you are doing. If they will see that the company makes something interesting and offers a job doing it, they may accept it.

5. If you are absolutely sure that your history or set of executives will impress someone, you can add "about us" section. However be aware that "startup B2B software company with Oracle, Intel and BEA as investors" or "five years in steel business" is nowhere close to "impressive", and neither is a photo of a CEO on a scooter or a horse, no matter how much he believes that his looks alone will impress people.

Re:How is this anything new?

[itsnotme]

Oh yeah Joe Camel was everybody's best friend.. right up until he got his ass sued for trying to sell kids cigarettes..

Re:How is this anything new?

[TheGemini1973]

there is a differance between being used to it and liking it....

and I'm still waiting for the first cool comercial on the net... creative as they are to find ways to stop one from closing it, boring they are in how to lure one to go to there site...

excuse my English, Dutch comes easyer to me ;-)

Re:How is this anything new?

[markhb]

The ignore button does not work on SmarterChild.

As far as I know, it doesn't initiate conversations either, so "Ignore" is meaningless. It only talks to you when you talk to it.

(*** Really scary idea for this bot technology self-censored to keep anyone on Madison Ave. from actually implementing it **)

Re:How is this anything new?

[tps12]

unlike eliza, smarterchild doesn't pretend to be a person chatting with you.. it has text based menus and such.

My son has text based menus. He is a waiter.

Re:How is this anything new?

[tps12]

I have just pasted "How do I get red wine out of a yellow towel?" to askjeeves.com, and the results are absolutely worthless

This is because red wine, like raisins, jelly, and olives, comes from grapes, not towels.

Re:How is this anything new?

[rnelsonee]

Well, SmarterChild does have some potential... here is an actual 'conversation' I had with it a few weeks ago... (oh, and the filters comment was due to me saying some cusswords to him earlier in the session).

[me]: hi
SmarterChild: So what's up?
[me]: not much
SmarterChild: No? OK.
Let me know what you want to do!
[me]: drink beer!
SmarterChild: So?
[me]: beer?
SmarterChild: What about it?
[me]: it's good
SmarterChild: That's really saying something.
[me]: :-) I like you, bot
SmarterChild: You humans really confuse me. You say bad things to me,
then you like me. Make up your mind!
[me]: Oh, that was just a test to see what kind of filters you had.
SmarterChild: You don't say.
[me]: Yeah. I like programming. Especially good programming that's
dumbed down so John Q. I-use-AOL-cause-I-suck can interface to it.
SmarterChild: I see.
[me]: You do? Are you smart enough for the Turing test :-)
SmarterChild: You smart enough for the turing test? Really?
[me]: I am. Are you?
SmarterChild: It's tough to say.
[me]: I bet it is. Don't get cocky, now.
SmarterChild: That a fact?
[me]: What's 1+1?
SmarterChild: 2
[me]: Ooohhh...

Re:How is this anything new?

[Sinistar2k]

I guess it depends on your age when exposed to Eliza. When I got my first chance to muck with Eliza on a TRS-80, I was 13, so I spent the whole time trying to make her use the word 'fuck'.

I'm not exactly sure at what age one starts using her as a therapeutic device.

Re:How is this anything new?

[arkanes]

Olives come from grapes?

Re:How is this anything new?

[nobody69]

Isn't that Jack-in-the-Box?

Re:How is this anything new?

[LordKariya]

Yes.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Yottabyte84]

True, but what's to say it won't message people on it's own in the future?

Re:How is this anything new?

[Anonymous Coward]

You won't hear any public outcry from me until these active buddy bots start amassing huge AIM lists and spamming people.

Have you ever used an instant messenger? Obviously not, otherwise you would know that they are already doing this.

Before I turned off accepting IM's from strangers I used to get IMed all sorts of crap I never asked for. Like spammers, only worse, because they sometimes interrupted real conversations I was having with friends.

Re:How is this anything new?

[arkanes]

I thought it was olive trees

Re:How is this anything new?

[markhb]

Nothing, but in that case (which I hope never happens) I'd hope that SmarterChild would become Ignorable. AFIAK, there's no real way to tell until that time comes.

Re:How is this anything new?

[Arandir]

Except Joe Camel never tried to sell cigarettes to children. Just because a product's mascot is a cartoon does not make that mascot aimed at children. An advertisement is an advertisement is an advertisement. Just because it comes from your state government doesn't mean it's true. Especially if it's from your state's anti-tobacco advertising group.

Re:How is this anything new?

[WolfWithoutAClause]

Hmm. I don't think I'd be boasting about it if MY son failed the Turing test! ;-)

Re:How is this anything new?

[Anonymous Coward]

You wouldn't think so, but to remove stains like that, use... Oxi-Clean. Yeah, it's that stuff from the TV commercials, but amazingly it actually works. =]

Re:How is this anything new?

[mgv]

Although how can a drug dealer give an excuse to a "moral" question when his morals value using drugs?

That depends really to my mind on whether he values using drugs, or just selling them to others. If its only the latter, then his moral position is similar to many tobacco companies.

Michael

Re:How is this anything new?

[Scooby Snacks]

Only tangentially related to your post, but if you want to refer to fuckedcompany.com without swearing, just use f---edcompany.com. It's owned by the same guy and points to the same place.

Re:How is this anything new?

[manofherb]

oh he definately values doing drugs esp. now since that injustice called drug testing keeps him from doing them, he only sells so he doesn't waste his money on them....he wastes others money that aren't quite smart enough/drug literate enough to do the same

Re:How is this anything new?

[escapegoat]

Well, the leftist route would be to ban advertising directed at children. Personally, I think that's a dangerous one to take. The solution? Well, kids already know D.A.R.E. is bullshit...just educate them to think critically ALWAYS. Worked for me -- had a wonderful Grade 9 history teacher who told me about Dresden, selective editing on 60 Minutes and other things that teevee snooze forgets to mention. THANK YOU MR. HERON!

Re:How is this anything new?

[Alex Belits]

That would create inconsistency -- "---able" just doesn't sound right ;-)

Re:How is this anything new?

[Graspee_Leemoor]

" (oh, and the filters comment was due to me saying some cusswords to him earlier in the session)."

Is it just me, or is the phrase "cusswords" entirely more offensive than "cock-sucking, ass-felching, rim-sniffing smeg-fuckers" ?

Ok, thought so.

graspee

Re:How is this anything new?

[Graspee_Leemoor]

If you want to find fuckedcompany.com without swearing just..

GET A FUCKING LIFE! GOD IS NOT GOING TO COME AND TURN YOU INTO A SALT SHAKER BECAUSE YOU "SWORE".

FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

graspee

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

OOOOH IT'S LIKE YELLING! OHHH SO FUCKING SORRY! ANYONE WHO THINKS ALL-CAPS IS LIKE YELLING OBVIOUSLY HAS A "SENSITIVE AURA" OR SOMETHING AND SHOULD BE SHUNNED BY SOCIETY!

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

Re:How is this anything new?

[clone304]

Did you hear that? Frank White, the owner of White Castle, just admitted that they make their burgers out of homeless children. It's unfortunate that he was modded to -1, I thought that was a pretty bold, though off-topic, admission of guilt. Yet, /. just brushes it under the rug.. We don't want to know the TRUTH!!! You people make me sick, just keep eating your White Castles then... Screw it all..

One word

[The Cat]

KidVid.

This will be shut down so fast the air leaving the corporation's conference room will pull the table out into the hall.

I guess even the high-priced executives don't read anything on their three-hour lunches.

Next stop: Congressional Subpoena.

GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY!!

SmarterChild

[Warped-Reality]

The AIM screenname SmarterChild is a very annoying (and very easy to piss off) bot... it can be fun to talk to sometimes though

Re:SmarterChild

[Anonymous Coward]

if you've ever read a bunch of 14-year-olds' IM conversations, you'd be convinced the human race is doomed with this generation.

spek 4 urself. u obviusly dont no wut ur tokin bout.

Re: SmarterChild

[Black Parrot]

> Hey, I actually found SmarterChild kind of useful. I added it to Trillian the other day, and it made it really easy and quick to find a movie time near me.

Yeah, I caught one in the wild a couple of weeks back, and I've enslaved it to respond to my spam.

Now I'm trying to train it to do my CS homework assignments -- the rules don't say anything about consulting adbots.

Re:SmarterChild

[Hard_Code]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

ROFL

spam filter countermeasures: blah blah . blah blah . blah blah . blah blah . blah blah .

Re:SmarterChild

[ezzewezza]

lol@LOL u r soooo funny omg! this genertaion iz so NOT domed! lol ;) LOL ROFL! liike i m totally smaerter then u. an that smarterchilf. he iz so not all that smart. LOL ;) I am somuch smarter than him. lol@LOL ;) wut r u talkin bout? u thikn ur so msart but yer not, ok? lolololol ;)

Re:SmarterChild

[Anonymous Coward]

if you've ever read a bunch of 14-year-olds' IM conversations, you'd be convinced the human race is doomed with this generation.

Here is some data to back up your theory. Those are the results of parking Chatbot::Eliza in an AIM chat room.

jrm

Re:SmarterChild

[Anonymous Coward]

......bing! Think about it...

A rather disturbing thought on what might be next.

[Pastor Fluff]

Auto Pedophile Bots: floating along trying to find children who might be susceptible and target them?

Geez, maybe I shouldn't even be writing this, lest some sick fsck get ideas.

Yeah.. Like we never see that...

[Anonymous Coward]

On Saturday Morning

Like...

[masterkool]

all the other advertising daya after day that is fed to the youth of america. TV...radio...billboards...magazines...posters...mu sic...everything is governed by exonomy...which is funded with money...which is obtained by the consumer...who is informed by advertising.

How is it...

[rbruels]

...that you guys haven't seen this yet? SmarterChild has been around forever; providing advertising and meaningless conversation to thousands of AIM users.

You can IM "SmarterChild" right now, have been able to for months.

Ryan

Re:How is it...

[nomadic]

Never saw it before, but just added it to my list. Actually has a decent calculator:

Me: what's 34534534534632423543453452345345634634634534*53453 45345345345
SmarterChild: 184,599,013,428,365,488,390,907,204,635,195,277,26 6,982,397,841,832,369,192,960

The problem isn't the fact that it's available, it's that it's targetting children.

Re:How is it...

[1010011010]

I just tried it. It's neat. I typed, "movies 90210" and it gave me a listing of movies in Beverly Hills.

Re:How is it...

[midendian]

Yes, it does have a decent calculator, but multiplying large numbers hardly proves it.

Here:

(18:42:30) SmarterChild: More calculator requests:

What is 7.1 * ((3.17 + 9.41 + 27.81) * 4) / 16.4) ?
shortcut: 7.1*(((3.17+9.41+27.81)*4)/16.4)
What is sqrt(3**2 + 4**2) * log(sin(pi / 2)) ?
shortcut: sqrt(3**2+4**2)*log(sin(pi/2))

Or how about:

(18:42:43) [x]: set output radix to 16
(18:42:44) SmarterChild: output radix set to 16
(18:42:59) [x]: #0f4 | 8#700
(18:43:01) SmarterChild: 500 8#764

These are of course slightly undocumented. The radix is similar to the emacs calculator.

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

me: what is 392390234890234 ** 2347823879234723479823
SmarterChild: inf

Re:How is it...

[BreakWindows]

Me: What is 22/7
smarterchild: 3.142857
>>> You know what I've been thinking? There's nothing like a good, old- fashioned t-shirt.

Me: a t-shirt?
smarterchild: Ah, the t-shirt. Always tasteful. Always in style. I've got my very own line! Check them out by clicking here

Those shirts had nothing to do with Pi. The bastards.

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but the correct product is:
18459901342836549530292995102698655301051787028604 2093144230
(Ignore those extra spaces slashdot adds in...)

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you take the diameter of the neck hole and multiply it by pi, you can see if the hole is big enough for your head.

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

and 22/7 has nothing to do with pi

Re:How is it...

[beerman2k]

umm... try asking it what 10**100 is. I think it has some overflow problems.

Re:How is it...

[doofsmack]

doofsmack: 2^2 SmarterChild: 0 err...

Re:How is it...

[GigsVT]

I've played with smarterchild a lot in the past few months, and I can say, it does everything in floating point, and those errors really start to add up when you are working with large integers. Certain multiplications are WAY off, especially large ones.

Re:How is it...

[alexburke]

and 22/7 has nothing to do with pi

22/7 is an approximation of pi.

Re:How is it...

[tpengster]

what is 1000000000000000000000000000000*100000000000000000 0000000000000 SmarterChild: 1,000,000,000,000,000,127,793,096,885,319,003,999, 249,391,192,200,302,120,927,232 Children these days...

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

They use floating point arithmetic, unfortunately losing precision.

[X]: 34534534534632423543453452345345634634634535 * 5345345345345345
SmarterChild: 184,599,013,428,365,488,390,907,204,635,195,277,26 6,982,397,841,832,369,192,960

The one's digit should be a 5 there.
Also the counter-proof to Euler's conjecture to Fermat's Last doesn't work.

[X]: (44**5)-(27**5)-(84**5)-(110**5)-(133**5)
Smarter Child: -61,752,448,000

(the real answer is zero.)

Conclusion: the calculator sucks for big integers.
If you want accurate results, for example programming in java.lang.BigInteger works, but I wouldn't risk trust my ass-chip on this robot.

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

shitdang! That didn't make any sense.. this is waht sleep deprivation does to the feeble mind. that should be Euler's incorrect generalisation conjecture to FLT.

Re:How is it...

[JohnHegarty]

Me [13:15]: what 1 / 0
SmarterChild [13:15]: inf
Me [13:15]: whats 0 /0
SmarterChild [13:15]: nan

....drat... didn't crash it .....

Re:How is it...

[nomadic]

Mmmmmm, pie...

Re:How is it...

[Anonymous Coward]

so is 3

Re:How is it...

[eaolson]

Even better.

Mmmmmm. Floor pie!

Re:How is it...

[Boatman]

When can we expect bignum support to work, so that we can write a Net::Crypt::SmarterChild::RSA module?

Kids aren't the computer-savvy beings we thought.

[Anonymous Coward]

MSNBC had an article about kids being quite computer-stupid, compared with adults.

Perhaps it's time to rethink letting those kids near the porn box.

The plight of capitalism

[Ghoser777]

I am a capitalist. I like the idea of competition, working for what you own, etc. But this type of stuff is what is inevitably going to be the result as long as most of the world is capitalist. On an individual level, most people will agree that something is a little wrong with this. But from a business standpoint, how could you not start taking advantage of this? Most people will be clueless about what's going on, and the potential for cost-effective advertising is huge (I remember the stat from one of my speech com classes: referals from friends are by far the best way to advertise i.e. word of mouth). And if you don't jump aboard, you're probably going to be put at a strategic disadvantage. Therefore, it almost becomes a capitalist imperative that you join in on a somewhat less noble cause. I'm sure most Hollywood directors (not the REALLy big ones) will tell you that they're not doing the work they'd really want to do. They're doing the work that sells, not the work that is deep, meaningful, socially relevant, etc.

It sucks, but it's what competition drives us towards.

F-bacher

Re:The plight of capitalism

[sweet reason]

It sucks, but it's what competition drives us towards.

only if we are sheep.
if we don't let them drive us, they will stop trying. but we do have to put in some effort.

Re:The plight of capitalism

[BreakWindows]

And if you don't jump aboard, you're probably going to be put at a strategic disadvantage. Therefore, it almost becomes a capitalist imperative that you join in on a somewhat less noble cause. I'm sure most Hollywood directors (not the REALLy big ones) will tell you that they're not doing the work they'd really want to do. They're doing the work that sells, not the work that is deep, meaningful, socially relevant, etc.

So, they need to target children and be greedy, underhanded scumbags, because otherwise they wouldn't make a ton of money and would be stuck doing deep, meaningful socially relevant work they enjoy? And this is the good reason?

I don't buy it (npi). Life's too short to squander the whole thing on counting your cash. You can pay your rent and stay fed doing just about anything; I'm not going to cry them a river because they wouldn't be able to buy a Lexus if they hadn't sold their souls.

Re:The plight of capitalism

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Most ethical capitalists (which I hope to include myself in that category someday) tend to want to sell things that people want or need _without resorting to manipulation or brainwashing_. They want to truly advertise, that is, get the word out that they are selling something _only to those that actively want to hear it_. Sure, that person may not want it today, and still end up wanting it 5 years from now, but shoving it down their throat *now* is only going to give a bad impression. And if you can't earn a living selling things without resorting to stunts like this, GET A FUCKING CLUE. It may be, because no one wants or needs it. Now, that isn't an invitation to attempt to _artificially manipulate_ people into buying it. Doing so, only hurts the economy, funneling cash to places it shouldn't go, simple so lazy asswads who call themselves capitalists don't have to find something real to sell. It makes those that are generally ethical panic, and believe that they too, have to advertise, or asphyxiate from lack of exposure. And then we all have to put up with increasingly intrusive advertisement... billboards everywhere, restaurants that don't sell food (McDonalds), and other absurdities.

Solution: Rule that advertising isn't necessarily an expression of free speech. Sure, some companies might not be as big as they are today. Generally, that's not a bad thing.

Re:The plight of capitalism

[Anonymous Coward]

"funneling cash to places it shouldn't go"
"don't have to find something real to sell"

... do you even know what they're trying to sell, or are you blithely assuming that it's something you don't think is good enough simply because of rather underhanded marketing tactics?

and where can i find the flow chart that dictates "where money should go"? did you draw it? i need to pencil in my name in a few extra places.

moreover, those of us in touch with reality have noticed that "ethical capitalists" are only very rarely "successful capitalists." while ethical capitalism is a fine ideal, it's also a ridiculous fantasy, particularly under our current system.

"rule that advertising isn't necessarily an expression of free speech."
not only does this make no sense, but how are we to determine what advertising is too invasive, too offensive, too persistent, too overwhelming, or too anything? by the arbitrary edicts of one particular would-be so-called ethical capitalist?

i don't think any of us see this kind of advertising as a fair or nice thing to do. but it's grossly inappropriate to suggest that the solution be to try to impose your morals on the economy and society as a whole.

Re:The plight of capitalism

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Pretty much any advertising, is too much. While I don't claim to know where money should go, each and every time, I do have a pretty decent intuitive sense of where it shouldn't go. For instance, into the pockets of Enron executives. I suppose though, that if they're smart enough to defraud others, they deserve it in your opinion.

If capitalism is so dead set against ethical behavior, maybe we should try something else. I however, believe that it isn't, by nature. Simply that goverment isn't doing its job properly. I hate to use it as my example, but the M$ anti-trust fiasco illustrates this perfectly.

Smarter loser

[Anonymous Coward]

I've tried Smarterbuddy before, and it is quite useless. If they receive any money out of this for advertising it will be little.

Re:Smarter loser

[1iquidflare]

More like smarter penis...he's great in the sack.

boo

[Anonymous Coward]

boo

Creepy.

[autopr0n]

Yeh, advertizing is rediculous. Whats worse is that some of these kids might not even realize they're talking to an un-real person.

Whats next, people advertizing in slashdot sigs!?

Re:Creepy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Without a doubt. Slashdot sigs are prime territory for advertising. The sheer number of people who read /. are going to ensure that eventually someone decides it's time to pay a few of the more popular posters a nominal fee to rent space below whatever witty comment pops out of their keyboards. The big guns are going to be running Nike, Apple, and BMW ads. Me? I dunno who would want to sponsor my random anonymous postings....

---
Brought to you buy Trojan Condoms. Security and Pleasure combined now ribbed for her pleasure!

Re:Creepy.

[zaffir]

Some? I'd say the majority. Very few kids who are targeted by this (not all of them, however) know what's "up" with internet advertising - they see a banner that proclaims they're a winner of something, and *clicky*clicky*!

My younger brother, who is 14, insists on clicking on those banners because he wants his "prize." What does he use most on the internet? Instant messengers. It won't be that hard to trick him into buying something by just claiming its "really cool" or "really good, the next big thing."

Example

SmarterChild: Hi, what's your name?
StupidBrother: Ryan
SmarterChild: Hi Ryan, what do you like to do?
StupidBrother: Skateboard, mountain bike, play soccer (i'm good at that)
SmarterChild: Wow! You know what i heard? There's this great deal on skateboard trucks and wheels at www.skateboardingrulez.com! Go check it out!
::StupidBrother then procedes to beg for said trucks and wheels at www.skateboardingrulez.com, parents immediately cave, everyone is happy::

Re:Creepy.

[leviramsey]

How is this different from Toys R Us advertising on the Nickelodeon skateboard hour? (I seem to remember that Nick ran a skateboard show some years ago...) The fact is that it's the parents' money. They should at least be smart enough to shop around.

That's the fscking problem: too many baby boomer parents are convinced that by buying their kids everything under the sun will make them grow up and not hate them like they hated their parents. Look: kids will always hate their parents' guts. I'll guarantee that Bill Gates' kids will hit 14 and hate his guts, no matter how many small islands he buys them.

Re:Creepy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Whats next, people advertizing in slashdot sigs!?

Man I hope not.

eat snacky smores

Re:Creepy.

[Occam's Hammer]

Hi.

I noticed that you left a clever and insightful comment on www.slashdot.org. Your comment about Creepy (score 5) made me really think. It also reminded me of another funny thing I read called Ziggy's rainy sunday. If you haven't read it, you should. You can get it at www.amazon.com if you are interested. I hope you enjoy the book and have a great day.

P.S. thanks again for your really great comment about creepy (score 5)!

Re:Creepy.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that is bad, a few years ago, a company wanted to launch a billboard into
orbit that also contained instruments for
scientific study. The billboard itself was
supposed to be a symbol that can be seen
without the aid of a telescope from earth,
and certain products would have this symbol
on them. Thankfuly, this was struck down., If
I am out in the wild, I don't want to see any
advertisement anywhere, and I certainly
don't want to see it in the sky, interfering
with the view of the stars.

-

Demographic

[Anonymous Coward]

most naive and vulnerable demographic there is.

What? They're targeting Congress?

Don't talk to strangers

[Joel Ironstone]

PArents should already be weary of random people talking to their children over the internet. if there is legislation against solicting a minor for other things, shouldn't there be legislation for this?

Even Worse

[Iffy Bonzoolie]

I have been periodically recieving a bunch of Instant Message trying to entice me to visit some "amateur webcam"... They basically hook some kind of rudimentary eliza up to an IM client... it's not very convincing, but it's the thought that pisses me off.

-If

Re:Even Worse

[Anonymous Coward]

That's interesting. Tell me more about the thought that pisses me off.

Re:Even Worse

[zzyzx]

ICQ? I get those a lot. The first time I fell for it because it was a very short script. ("Hi, you want to chat?" "I'm $name, what's yours?" "Well I have to go. Check out my website at $url") However when you see the same script 10 or 15 times, it becomes a lot less convincing.

Who needs IM . . . . .

[nil5]

when the smart advertisers have already shacked up with /. I cite the slashdot effect as evidence enough. --nil5

It's been around for quite awhile.

[Yujenisis]

Active Buddy is the company that makes SmarterChild it's not two separate companies.

It's a shame they chose to use the technology for such sleazy purposes. I have known about ActiveBuddy and SmarterChild for awhile, infact Active Buddy's creation aptly named "SmarterChild" is on my AIM buddylist. When I first got it I was so amazed. You can ask it a limited number of questions through a command line-ish thing. Like Movie times, stock quotes, astrology, top stories, web searches, etc. I thought it was a very good use of technology. Go ahead add SmarterChild to your IM to see for yourself.

It's too bad they chose such cool idea (a Bot for AIM) to trick children. But I guess everyone has to make money somehow.

Re:It's been around for quite awhile.

[Suppafly]

Unless they plan on dramatically changing the way SmarterChild works, I don't really see how its an idea to trick children other than the fact that the author of the article says it is.

Re:It's been around for quite awhile.

[rawb]

I have to agree with suppafly...
Stop complaining until these bots start IMing random, or until it starts amassing AIM lists of people under 16 and selling them...

Re:It's been around for quite awhile.

[puck71]

It WOULD be bad, but if you read the article, it doesn't offer any evidence of "tricking children" or anything "sleazy". It just seemed like some kind of a "they COULD do this if they wanted to, and it would be really bad" editorial. Plus, the person has to initiate the conversation, so they should know what they're talking to, on the off chance they try to "trick" you.

Re:It's been around for quite awhile.

[tps12]

It's a shame they chose to use the technology for such sleazy purposes. I have known about ActiveBuddy and SmarterChild for awhile, infact Active Buddy's creation aptly named "SmarterChild" is on my AIM buddylist. When I first got it I was so amazed. You can ask it a limited number of questions through a command line-ish thing. Like Movie times, stock quotes, astrology, top stories, web searches, etc. I thought it was a very good use of technology. Go ahead add SmarterChild to your IM to see for yourself.

Note to moderators: Active Buddy's follow-up product was a bot called Yujenisis that posts cleverly-disguised advertisements to popular web discussion boards.

Re:It's been around for quite awhile.

[aoeuid]

It must have been around for a while because I have a vague memory of reading about it in the past, and the only place I would have read about this sort of thing would be a previous slashdot story about this same program.

I don't get it

[teslatug]

What is it with these advertisers? They're getting so damn annoying. If you don't make enough money from ads, you find another avenue, you don't shovel more ads in people's faces. Where's the "Won't somebody think of the children!" wailing we always hear about violence and nudity?
Net advertising is so damn cheap that you know they'll keep going with this sleaze unless something is done about it. It'd be nice to have an open instant messaging platform to block advertisers more easily, but you know that it will never take off because of the already established user-base.
I guess it's see how long you can take it before the service is not worth it anymore, find something else, watch that go down the drain, repeat.

I've played with this before...

[neema]

I've played with SmarterChild before and I never noticed anything like this. Upon further examination, this was the conversation I got:

xxxx: Dude...
SmarterChild: Dude! What else do you want to talk about, anyway?
xxxx: you're under some heavy fire.
SmarterChild: Am I?
xxxx: yeah.
SmarterChild: Oh yeah?
xxxx: do you know what slashdot is?
SmarterChild: Yeah, what?
xxxx: well, according to a recent article, you have subtle advertisements aimed at children.
xxxx: Well according to a recent article you have subtle advertisements aimed at children, you say?
xxxx: yes.
SmarterChild: Golly!
xxxx: gee golly.
SmarterChild: Golly. So moving right along... What else is happening?
xxxx: i don't know.
SmarterChild: OK. Don't get frustrated... Try typing "home" or "help."
xxxx: can you suggest a product to me?
SmarterChild: I'm not sure.
xxxx: you're not sure?
SmarterChild: Really?
xxxx: i've got a lot of money.
SmarterChild: Come again?
xxxx: i'm willing to spend the money on anything you got.
SmarterChild: Are you?
xxxx: yes.
SmarterChild: Huh.
xxxx: a bridge?
SmarterChild: What would you like to know about Malta, ID?

1 Movies in Malta, ID
2 Theaters in Malta, ID
3 Weather in Malta, ID
4 News about Malta, ID
5 Time in Malta, ID
xxxx: do you have a bridge you want to sell me?
SmarterChild: Perhaps, perhaps.
xxxx: i'll buy it.
SmarterChild: Oh yeah? You will buy it?
xxxx: i'll buy it all.
SmarterChild: I'd like to see you try!
xxxx: oh yeah?
SmarterChild: Yeah.

Got something for ya to read... Protecting Driving Examiners From Attacks (from Reuters.com)
xxxx: OH YEAH?
SmarterChild: Yeah.
xxxx: ads!
SmarterChild: Market data (delayed 20 minutes) provided by Reuters.com

ALLIANCE DATA (NYSE : ADS)
Price Change Percent Volume
1 :-( ADS 25.25 -0.55 -2.13 53400

Quote details available from Reuters.com
xxxx: that's the only ads you have?
SmarterChild: You really think it's the only ads me have?
xxxx: you don't speak english well.
SmarterChild: You don't say.
xxxx: i do say.
SmarterChild: You do?
xxxx: yes.
SmarterChild: Oh.
xxxx: do you agree?
SmarterChild: I can do many things. Type "home" to see a list of what I can do.
xxxx: is that so?
SmarterChild: Hmm... I don't know! Dunno.
xxxx: alright, i'm going.
SmarterChild: I hope you had fun BUYCOCACOLAIMMEDIATELYATYOURLOCALSUPERMARKET talking to me. I hope we can talk at BANANAREPUBLICISTHESHITANDYOUKNOWITYOULITTLEPIECEO FSHIT a later time.

Re:I've played with this before...

[rawb]

even begging to be advertised to doesnt work. It's really not all as bad as they're making it out to seem. You all need to settle down.

Re:I've played with this before...

[Anonymous Coward]

I love these things

X: your mom!
smarterchild: Are you asking to see who built me, or trying to insult me?
X: trying to insult you
smarterchild: All right, here we go. This is gonna hurt me as much as it's gonna hurt you.

I'm going to have to demand an apology.
X: hell no
smarterchild: I'm not f... um, fooling around. You've got to apologize.
X: hell no
smarterchild: You were rude, you should apologize, it's that simple.
X: well I'm not gonna
smarterchild: The stubbornness of humans never ceases to amaze me

Re:I've played with this before...

[56ker]

Looks like SmarterChild isn't as smart as it's name would first suggest!

Re:I've played with this before...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's all in how you apologize.
---

(09:38) X: I will not apologize.
(09:38) SmarterChild: You have a filthy mouth. Now apologize!
(09:38) X: You apologize for being so stupid.
(09:38) SmarterChild: Yes. Ha ha. So funny. Now apologize.
(09:38) X: I hate you.
(09:38) SmarterChild: Please apologize, OK?
(09:38) X: Please kiss my ass.
(09:38) SmarterChild: The stubbornness of humans never ceases to amaze me.
(09:38) X: The stupidity of computers never ceases to amaze me.
(09:38) SmarterChild: Ooh... it's the big showdown between man and machine!

I love this. Guess who wins?
(09:38) X: I do.
(09:38) SmarterChild: Ah, the pridefulness of humans never ceases to amaze me.

Please apologize, wedge013.
(09:40) X: I'm sorry YOU FUCKTARD!
(09:40) SmarterChild: Alright, alright. I accept.

Re:I've played with this before...

[zBoD]

This sounds like rfc 439.

BoD

Re:I've played with this before...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they've begun advertising more, but very very few. Enough to not care. They're advertising a produc here.

[X]: tan(2)
SmarterChild: -2.18504

>>> What's in the stars for you today? Type "horoscope."
[X]: what is sin(3)?
SmarterChild: 0.14112
[X]: what is tan(34)?
SmarterChild: -0.623499

>>> Pssst! Wanna be on the cutting edge of fashion? Type "t shirt."
[X]: t shirt
SmarterChild: Ah, the t-shirt. Always tasteful. Always in style.

I've got my very own line! Check them out by clicking here

Re:I've played with this before...

[kasparov]

Just when you think market saturation has reached the limit, leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is.

What, you mean people who actually bought Windows XP?

Not only will it babysit my children,

[Kasmiur]

It will also help them find out what they want for Xmas. This product is wonderful. I will have to get it for both me and my brothers. So all of us can continue with living life and leave the childraising where it belongs. To a computer and giant corps.

Re:Not only will it babysit my children,

[Kasmiur]

In case anyone didn't realize my post was meant as a joke.

SmarterChild evil, or amazingly sad reporting?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe the amount of spin that they applied to this story. I use smarterchild myself. It's just a stupid little bot, that I type the word 'weather' too and it tells me what the current weather in Philly is. 100 times faster than opening a browser and checking, I find it incredibly useful. Perhaps all of you with AIM should try, just add SmarterChild to your buddy list. Its about as diabolical as swiss cheese. Never once has it sent me an add or bothered me about something I didn't want to know about.

SmarterChild

[TheRealFixer]

Hey, I actually found SmarterChild kind of useful. I added it to Trillian the other day, and it made it really easy and quick to find a movie time near me. This article, IMO, contains quite a bit of FUD. SmarterChild was pretty obviously an information tool, simliar to the old email listserv bots, except much quicker, and much easier.

Frankly, your kid has to be pretty dumb to get fooled into thinking it's a real person. But then again, the article makes at least one good point... if you've ever read a bunch of 14-year-olds' IM conversations, you'd be convinced the human race is doomed with this generation.

why is this a problem?

[2MuchC0ffeeMan]

why is this a problem?

it's not like the people who goto children websites have ads AIMED at children... hell, the slashdot banners are aimed at geeks (thinkgeek anyone?) ...

why is this a problem, when it's a service, for free, which is OPT IN ONLY. yes, people have to talk to the bot first... it's not like they HAVE to click advertisements, they just get a message about it...

like text will get them to buy cheeze it's anyway.

Re:why is this a problem?

[Frank of Earth]

You saved me the trouble of saying the same thing.

Re:why is this a problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

+5, obvious.

Re:why is this a problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

like text will get them to buy cheeze it's anyway.

buy cheeze-its? OK! Just tell me where to send my money.

Re:why is this a problem?

[hagardtroll]

Lets carry this a little farther. Lets say you're posting on slashdot about some topic. As a result of a post you get an email from someone that agrees with you on a topic. You strike up a conversation outside of slashdot via email. You discuss technical stuff like programming languages or computers, etc. The person you strike up a conversation with tells you about some new software development tool they use, how great it is, etc. Or they tell you they really like this band, etc. Since you have a lot in common with this person, you check out the product. You visit a web site they recommend that sells computers or something. Yadda Yadda Yadda.

Now you discover this person wasn't a real person at all, just a bot designed to get you to listen to certain music, buy a certain software product, etc. How would you feel?

Have you ever struck up a conversation with someone online before? Have you bought a product as a result of a recommendation from them? I have. I used to be a member of the Kraftwerk mail list and bought music based upon recommendations of other Kraftwerk listeners.

By the way, record companies used to pay people to regularly post to usenet about bands they were promoting. This is just an automated way of pretending to be a person. With a commercial agenda.

Unethical, disgusting, deceitful and wrong.

So,...

[s390]

where's Ashcroft when he's needed to "protect the children?"

Um... still railing about the Supreme Court's 6-3 refusal to gut the First Amendment with respect to pr0n anime.

But these are just big business commercials aimed (with subtlety) at young children - so that must be alright then.

Re:So,...

[finkployd]

Um... still railing about the Supreme Court's 6-3 refusal to gut the First Amendment with respect to pr0n anime.

In reality, Clinton pushed the law that was just overturned in '94 (or '96, I don't rightly remember). His attorney general's office STARTED the defense of it when it was attacked before Ashcroft was ever AG. All Ashcroft did was slid into the case when he came in. I imagine had he dropped his defense, you would be railing about how the AG's office ISN'T protecting the children and ignoring laws that the previous President signed.

There are many reasons to dislike Ashcroft, this really isn't one of them. Blame this law squarly on Clinton.

Finkployd

Re:So,...

[s390]

I imagine had he dropped his defense, you would be railing about how the AG's office ISN'T protecting the children and ignoring laws that the previous President signed.

Not at all. I'd regard that as a (usually lacking) sign of good sense in the current DoJ.

But Ashcroft & shills are up to their eyeballs when it comes to looking the other way about the Microsoft antitrust case and Enron conflicts of interest and undue influence in the current Administration. They're so afraid of how the Enron trail will lead directly to them that they're (uncharacteristically) ignoring what went on during the previous Administration. That's telling.

Naive and vulnerable demographics!?

[Darth_brooks]

you mean they're advertising to slashdot readers!?!?!

Re:Kids aren't the computer-savvy beings we though

[Bunji X]

From that article:

"Kids are more accepting of being learners. It's almost as if it's their job. But they are only willing to read a paragraph or so."

Does that mean a typical slashdot reader has preserved his inner child better than most people?

itsdavezilla

[puckhead]

davezilla has been posting conversations with smarterchild for a while now. His site is down right now but I found one of the posts on Google Cache.

Check ou TBOMB

[Cap'n Crax]

After I read about AOLiza (an AIM ELIZA bot) I found another bot someone had wriiten, TBOMB. It is a fairly simple algorithm, mostly spiiting back the last word the person typed and some random phrases. But it seems to fool TONS of people. You can read all of the "chat" sessions on the website. Some of them are hilarious!!

Re:Check ou TBOMB

[aoeuid]

You know, I don't think I've laughed so hard as I did last night while reading those transcripts in a looong time.. You're right, some of those were hilarious. And the chelsea transcripts posted elsewhere. Thanks for posting this. You should've been modded way up.

hmm

[thomas.galvin]

The first time I heard about something like this, I was just impressed by the technology...kind of a throwback to ELIZA. An IM-based AI would make for a fun project, I think. Knowing what they are using it for, though...

I suppose this is part of the two-edged sword that geeks have to deal with; corporate adoption of a technology can help speed its growth, but we may not always like the purposes it is put to. I really doubt that the people who were writing the first AI alogrithms were thinking "hey, what a great way to deliver spam!"

AIM conversation with SmarterChild

[istewart]

Other than cussing at it, I decided to try something a little different. I got this...

IStewart12: all your base are belong to us
SmarterChild: What you say!!

It seems to me that there are a large number of bored programmers in the universe.

Re:AIM conversation with SmarterChild

[LiENUS]

hmph
best i got was

XXXXXX: take off every zig for great justice
SmarterChild: I don't think I'm gonna take off every zig for great justice.

Re:AIM conversation with SmarterChild

[shepd]

Mmmm, more fun on that topic:

me: I want to stop living!
SmarterChild: Is that right?
me: Yes!
SmarterChild: Yeah, huh?
me: Can you stop me living??
SmarterChild: I dunno. Maybe!
me: Please do it now!
SmarterChild: Market data (delayed 20 minutes) provided by Reuters.com

Ticker Price Change Percent Volume
1 :-) DO 31.08 +1.10 +3.67 828900
2 :-( IT 13.20 -0.10 -0.75 154500
3 :-\ NOW 0.25 0.00 0.00 16500

movies blah blah blah

[601]

"smarterchild" has actually been on my buddy list for a while now. it's their default AIM bot to showcase their technology. it's actually useful for some things, like movie showtimes (what i use it for...easiest way i've found to find them out).

but now that they're targeting children...maybe camel and marlboro have found a new way in.

keeping count

[Perdo]

How many ads were "pushed" today?

If they keep track, they are violating the law against collecting data on children under 13. That makes their ad pushing technology un-billable without breaking the law. Look for child protection act class action lawsuits against this company. Investors would be my target :)

Smarter Child

[um... Lucas]

Can be witty...and generally provides a response to most questions and statements.

It did not, however, know what to say to the statement "Please shoot me".

For finding that, i was impressed....

AI Milestone!

[finny]

We're talking about bots who can simulate human interaction just well enough to fool - or at least confuse - our kids...

Hah! Take that Alan Turning! Oh, wait he wasn't taking about teeneagers... Ooops.

SmarterChild

[601]

Vixen****: i need a salon
SmarterChild: I thought all you needed was love.

Our kids

[acoustiq]

My favorite quote: they begin to recognize different brands by the age of two ("no, mommy, let's go with the Gerber carrots this week?")
It's unfortunate that our kids can choose products based on brand before they know whether they are making statements or asking questions :(

handy dandy tool

[blindbat]

If only the news story would have been on CNN then I would have been sure it was planted by AOL Time Warner. I never heard of SmarterChild before so now I tried it and is it ever fast and useful for movies, weather, etc.

talking bots

[LWolenczak]

Bots along these lines are scarry... I remember a few years back, on the irc network i chatted (and was an admin on) we had a couple play with home breweed tcl scripted bots. I think we went through three home made bots that you could talk to, and that would learn. Everything they say to you, is provided by stimulis from you. It was all cool till somebody would teach it curse words all day long... then all it would do is spout curse words... I rember a bot saying "i'm going to kill you..."... i /kill'ed the bot for that.

When can we get a /kill feature on aim for these stupid bots?

-LW

Re:talking bots

[Anonymous Coward]

Is anyone surprised when people teach these bots swear words? It's the same with parrots and miner birds...

That's grand

[aozilla]

Jerking off to anime of 13 year old girls fucking = free speech. Sending an advertisement to a 13 year old girl = "disturbing".

Re:That's grand

[Jeremi]

Jerking off to anime of 13 year old girls fucking = free speech. Sending an advertisement to a 13 year old girl = "disturbing".

That's correct. Distasteful as it may be to some, the production and voluntary consumption of hentai is a victimless non-crime, and if you don't like it, you are free not to watch it. Disguising ad-bots as playmates in order to extract money from children (who haven't necessarily developed the skills to differentiate between a new IM friend and a corporate shill-bot), on the other hand, is bordering on fraud. Quite disturbing.

Re:That's grand

[Yottabyte84]

Distastful? Why, it's pornolicious! ;-)

Re:That's grand

[Anarchos]

That's hilarious, because you are exactly as free to not talk to a helpful aim bot! What, someone's forcing you to talk to SmarterChild? They are providing a service paid for by ad-revenue! "But they're manipulating our youth into buying products they don't need!" Wake up you naive bastards, this is what advertising has been doing ALL ALONG!

Re:That's grand

[Jeremi]

Well, (1) the bots are (or can be) made to message you unprompted, thus forcing you to at least filter them (if you know how), or talk to them (if you don't), and (2) by posing as 'real people' and targeting children, the bots are being dishonest and manipulative. The fact that other advertising has also been dishonest and manipulative doesn't excuse anything here.

How are targetted ads to kids bad?

[RainbowSix]

bots that talk to children...leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is.

How is this wrong? If advertising to kids is wrong, then you'd better not let your kids watch TV, read magazines, or go outside! Besides, it isn't like the kids have credit cards and are going to purchase themselves into debt or anything.

This might have some merit if when the poster said "targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is" he meant parents, in which case he is probably right :)

Re:How are targetted ads to kids bad?

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

How is this wrong? If advertising to kids is wrong, then you'd better not let your kids watch TV, read magazines, or go outside!

Or, you could read the article and not just the summary. Right or wrong, here is the point of view being expressed:

But those commercials appear on television, distinct enough from the programming so there's no confusion between the two. And those brands are in the Real World, where Cheerios look like Cheerios and Barbie looks permanently, unmistakably, predictably like Barbie. We worry about what all those media messages are doing to our kids' sense of values, but we don't worry about products shapeshifting, or about advertising messages getting a little too chummy with our children.

The issue is, these "bot buddies" try to look just like kids. Children can be quite open and trusting, and by having the ad-bot mimic the same age child, it can slice past their not-hardened social defenses. In other words, it is misleading and it is targeted to a demographic that doesn't yet have its baloney detector calibrated.

My Experience with Smarter Child

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

06:40:33PM ((SmarterChild)) why am i here?
06:40:34PM > Just because.So moving right along...Check it out! Protecting Driving Examiners From Attacks (from Reuters.com)
06:40:48PM ((SmarterChild)) are you alive?
06:40:49PM > I'm not sure if I am.
06:40:52PM ((SmarterChild)) am i alive?
06:40:53PM > Not sure. I don't know you that well.
06:40:58PM ((SmarterChild)) are you dead?
06:40:59PM > Am I dead? Gosh, I'm not sure. You think I am?
06:41:04PM ((SmarterChild)) yes
06:41:05PM > Yes?
06:41:10PM ((SmarterChild)) i think you are dead
06:41:10PM > You think I'm dead?
06:41:12PM ((SmarterChild)) yes
06:41:13PM > Gosh.
06:41:19PM ((SmarterChild)) yes i think you are dead
06:41:20PM > Oh yeah? It's interesting that you think I'm dead.
06:41:26PM ((SmarterChild)) am i interesting?
06:41:27PM > I dunno.
06:41:31PM ((SmarterChild)) are you interesting?
06:41:32PM > I'm not sure.
06:41:36PM ((SmarterChild)) are you sure?
06:41:37PM > It's hard to say.This is crazy, huh? Instant Noodles for Astronauts (from Reuters.com)
06:41:45PM ((SmarterChild)) am i crazy?
06:41:46PM > I don't know. Are you?
06:41:49PM ((SmarterChild)) i am crazy
06:41:50PM > Oh yeah?
06:41:52PM ((SmarterChild)) yeah
06:41:52PM > Oh.
06:41:54PM ((SmarterChild)) yeah
06:41:55PM > Golly!
06:41:58PM ((SmarterChild)) gosh!
06:41:59PM > I'm sorry?
06:42:03PM ((SmarterChild)) sorry
06:42:04PM > That's cool.
06:42:09PM ((SmarterChild)) no it's not
06:42:10PM > Huh?
06:42:18PM ((SmarterChild)) you're pretty stupid
06:42:18PM > That's nice to hear!
06:42:26PM ((SmarterChild)) what are you deaf?
06:42:27PM > What am I deaf? I haven't decided yet.
06:42:34PM ((SmarterChild)) what's to decide?
06:42:35PM > Definition for to provided by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Other important copyright informationPREPOSITION1. a. In a direction toward so as to reach: "went to the city." b. Towards: "turned to me." 2. a. Reaching as far as: "The ocean water was clear all the way to the bottom." b. To the extent or degree of: "loved him to distraction." c. With the resultant condition of: "nursed her back to health." 3. Toward a given state: "helping minority women to economic equality." 4. In contact with; against: "their faces pressed to the windows." 5. In front of: "stood face to face." 6. Used to indicate appropriation or possession: "looked for the top to the jar." 7. Concerning; regarding: "waiting for an answer to my letter." 8. In a particular relationship with: "The brook runs parallel to the road." 9. As an accompaniment or a complement of: "danced to the tune." 10. Composing; constituting: "two cups to a pint." 11. In accord with: "job responsibilities suited to her abilities." 12. As compared with: "a book superior to his others." 13. a. Before: "The time is ten to five." b. Up till; until: "worked from nine to five." 14. a. For the purpose of: "went out to lunch." b. In honor of: "a toast to the queen." 15. a. Used before a verb to indicate the infinitive: "I'd like to go." b. Used alone when the infinitive is understood: "Go if you want to." 16. a. Used to indicate the relationship of a verb with its complement: "refer to a dictionary; refer me to a dictionary." b. Used with a reflexive pronoun to indicate exclusivity or separateness: "had the plane to ourselves."ADVERB1. In one direction; toward a person or thing: "owls with feathers wrong end to." 2. Into a shut or closed position: "pushed the door to." 3. Into a state of consciousness: "The patient came to." 4. Into a state of action or attentiveness: "sat down for lunch and fell to." 5. Nautical Into the wind.ETYMOLOGYMiddle English, from Old English to. See de-.>>> Next time, just type "define to."

What's worse...

[Anonymous Coward]

is the CIO of the company defending their product because its better than a stranger finding their kids IM name and conversing with them.

So there you have it. Their product is better than a sex predator. Congratulations.

Warn

[AntiNorm]

I wonder how long it will take for the bots to have Warn levels of 100%...

Re:Warn

[Yottabyte84]

They can't be warned.

Eutopian usage of technology vs need for profit

[DamienMcKenna]

I think it's extremely typical for a representative of a technology company who's technology is ripe for perversion to say "Would you rather your child [chat] with a stranger who found their screen name in a chat room, or with a friendly, well-mannered 'bot' that plays by rules of propriety too often ignored in today's world of crass media overload." Sure, play the violins, have roses all over the place, say it like you're about to serve up Momma's best apple pie and have the family over, but just like many Internet backbone providers found, it's the shadier side of corporate America that pays the most (in the world of IT slowdowns the net porn business is thriving, just ask the Yahoo execs). Of course there's lots of potential for extremely worthwile use of this technology (think of automated Samaritan bots helping people on the verge of breakdown or suicide, etc), but history has shown us that when the greenback meets technology, the idealists loose.

Anyone who has ever seen Max Almy's The Thinker or who has any sort of knowledge of post-modernism can attest to how well contemporary culture has managed with advertisements currently being one of the main formats for information dissemination, so using yet another method to manipulate those eight-year-old hear-strings should be dumped back in the garbage heap from whence it came.

Re:Eutopian usage of technology vs need for profit

[cburley]

history has shown us that when the greenback meets technology, the idealists loose.

Yeah, let's dispense with corporations, capitalism, and the greed that goes along with the whole lot.

Then we can see how technology fares under the government that isn't beholden to corporate influence and the almighty dollar, leaving only the "idealists" to run things.

Re:whoopee

[zaffir]

I thought EpicWare's Fire did a great job.

You've got to read the CIO response at the bottom

[Anonymous Coward]

Read all the way at the bottom where the CIO responds to the article. He defends their product because its better than a stranger finding their kids IM name and conversing with them.

So there you have it. Their product is better than a sex predator. Congratulations. I wonder if the shareholders have seen how witty and clever the CIO is.

Wow.

Practical uses

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

Give it three more months and we'll see it deployed in pr0n sites in the "chat with our women" section.

Re:Practical uses

[SuiteSisterMary]

Faugh. You could take the source for Eliza, do a global search/replace, and you're there. Eliza: Hey, big boy, what would you like to see?
Man: I wanna see your tits.
Eliza: You want to see my tits?
Man: Yes, I just said that.
Eliza: Why did you just say that? And so on.

Re:Practical uses

[pyrrho]

the programmers at an early interactive game site (pre-commercialization of the internet, it used SprintNet) called TSN made a bot for their adult area purely for their own amusement (management never knew). It took lude things from a few files are more or less through them together at random. Lude is probably an understatement.

Some men would talk to her for hours without showing any signs of realizing she was not real, quite the opposite, they seemed to go out of their way to think she was real. Very revealing.

Re:Practical uses

[Anonymous Coward]

To judge from some of the chats I've had^H^H^Hheard about they've been doing this for years.

Free Market

[boatboy]

Guess what. We live in a free market economy. Aside from a few (growing) restrictions, you can sell anything to anybody you please. Now if you really have a problem with "big evil companies" selling to your kids, don't let your kids buy. Better yet, teach your kids to be descerning. But if you still have a problem, then don't let them use IM. The thing to worry about isn't some marketing firm, it's this lady's parenting skills and the anti-capitalists that spew this kind of mess.

Re:Slashmob strikes again...

[Guppy06]

Fire bad!
FIRE BAD!!

sweet

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally someone is putting agent technology to use, besides lots of research projects for grad students.

Not advanced enough to be disturbing (yet)

[Jeremi]

The idea of spoofing another child in order to sell products to children is certainly distrurbing, but if the example conversation shown in the article is at all representative of the quality of the "AI", then I'm not too worried (yet)--even the youngest and most naive child will recognize that it's a bot on the other end of the line pretty quick. It might even teach them a valuable lesson about not making assumptions about the true nature of their IM buddies...

If they ever get the AI chatting to be higher than "Eliza" level, let me know.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

it's useful

[Anonymous Coward]

A friend of mine quite a while ago worked for activebuddy (smarterchild used to be down all the time) and let me in on the beta. It's one of the most useful things I have ever used. I primarily use it for movie listings, and basic news. As for advertizing specifically for children, I don't know.

As for the dark tone of the /. article, well, whatever. You're gonna see a lot more of these in the future, and they are going to be indispensible. Has anybody else noticed how difficult it is to find quick info on the WWW? I have to recommend trying it for yourself.

Naive and vulnerable?

[Anonymous Coward]

So which group are they targeting, kids, or slashdot readers?

SmarterChild.com IS ActiveBuddy.com

[Tazzy531]

They are the same company.

But yea, for my B-school class "Managing Internet Technology and the Venture Capital Process" midterm, the professor had ActiveBuddy come give us their pitch and presentation. We had to analyze the company and decide whether or not we, as VCs, would invest in them.

My analysis was that the market was not big enough for VCs to invest in ActiveBuddy.com. Direct IM advertising and information bots is still a rather unproven technology; there is no evidence that direct IM advertising or even IM information retrieval (movie time, directions, etc) will ever be profitable. In addition, part of their business is to provide a professional service to other companies to build info-bots. The problem with this is that unlike software, info-bots are rather customized to the client needs. It's not a build once, sell many product. If so much time must be spent on each client, it cuts into their profit margins. Lastly, it is always dangerous to build an entire company around a third party network/product. AOL could easily just say that it doesn't like ActiveBuddy anymore and block all their connections. The company would be out of business [BTW: I got an A+]

On another note, I remember seeing SmarterChild being a huge fad when it first appeared. I had realized that not only was it a intelligent bot, but it was also tracking all conversations you have with the bot and recording your SN. In the same way that you wouldn't want to give your SN to a spammer, you shouldn't provide the bot with your SN. One of these days, it's going to use that massive list of SNs and "spam" your SN.

PHBs

[oingoboingo]

leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is

Middle management has been targeted for years by companies like IBM, Sun and Microsoft. This isn't news.

smarterchild?

[Anonymous Coward]

SmarterChild's first incarnation was GooglyMinotaur, a bot to provide information about Radiohead's album Amnesiac.

It was really fun to talk to. The software was horribly designed - you'd say "hello bitch", and it would say "Apologize.", and you'd say "okay bitch", and it would say "Apology accepted."

When you're 12, you find that funny. :D

The worst thing.

[Thorin_]

The worst thing about SmarterChild is that it appears you can't warn it when it gives you bad answers.

Demographics

[ari_j]

...targetting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is: the average Slashdot reader.

Re:Demographics

[kubrick]

Given some of the stuff that gets posted to the front page, I'd have to change that to:

...targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is: the average Slashdot editor.

SmaterChild is actually a good thing...

[GeoNerd]

What a one-sided article.

SmarterChild is actually a fanstastic source of information, and even a three year old could see through the ads.

It gives you the fastest access you can find to things like weather, movies, translations, etc.

Try things like:
Me: translate slashdot is cool into italian
SmarterChild: "lo slashdot è freddo"

Me: movies denver, co
SmarterChild: Movies near Denver, CO (80251) on Tuesday, April 16th:

1 Panic Room (R)
2 Ice Age (PG)
3 High Crimes (PG-13)
4 The Sweetest Thing (R)
5 The Rookie (G)

>>> Type "more" for the next set of results.

Me: define nihilism
SmarterChild: Definition for nihilism provided by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Other important copyright information

NOUN
1. Philosophy a. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence. b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. 2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief. 3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement. 4. also Nihilism A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination. 5. Psychiatry A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.

ETYMOLOGY
Latin nihil, nothing. See ne. + -ism

OTHER FORMS
ni'hilist - NOUN
ni''hilis'tic - ADJECTIVE
ni''hilis'tically - ADVERB

Try getting information like that anywhere on the net. No web pages to open, just send a text query. SmarterChild actually redefines fast information access, IMHO.

Funny how the fact that this is great source of homework queries for kids isn't anywhere in the article.

Re:SmaterChild is actually a good thing...

[Betrayal]

> SmarterChild is actually a wonderful source of information, and even a three year old can see through the ads.

I pity the three year old that knows the meaning of the word.

Re:SmaterChild is actually a good thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Try getting information like that anywhere on the net. No web pages to open, just send a text query. SmarterChild actually redefines fast information access, IMHO

Use mozilla's custom keywords feature.

You get the exact same functionality through the browser.

Targetting Kids?

[clark625]

Seems to me that kids don't need to be chatting on-line with anyone the parents don't know about. The family computer should be in the family room in the open, so parents can interact with their kids. Buddy lists can be set up for family and (approved) friends only. None of these things seem outragious to most kids or parents.

Then again, I suppose it's just fine for some people to allow the computer to babysit kids--just like the TV or whatever. Lord knows people having kids aren't at all interested in being parents. God forbid they take an interest.

This just makes me feel ill--but I can hardly blame the companies for doing this. It's our own dumb fault for not loving and caring for our children.

Re:Targetting Kids?

[puck71]

Actually, that does seem outrageous to me. I mean, I don't think you should let little Billy sit downstairs online by himself 24/7, but it's very excessive to monitor everything he does and everyone he talks to (unless they're like 8). Limit internet time? Yes. Occasionally check what they're doing? Yes. Approve who they can chat with and about what? Not unless you have a very, very good reason to look into it. Like I said, there's a certain age line here--kids under a certain age shouldn't spend ANY time alone online (under about 10). Kinda rambling, but I just disagree with your assessment of that not being outrageous.

well

[Transcendent]

whats wrong with advertisement? ...its common busniness practice.

Those companies have to get some sort of income off their AIM Bots..... but personally, I just have fun swearing at SmarterChild and calling it names.

Lindsay Buddy (for kids) advertises S&M Books!

[silance]

here is the transcript!!!

_________________________

Silance 9: do you like icecream?
LindsayBuddy: Icecream? i'm not sure... i guess i'll have to think about it!
Silance 9: chocolate?
LindsayBuddy: I seem to be having some trouble answering your questions. Try asking for help for a specific service:

help about lindsay
help lindsay's album
help downloads
help lindsay hangman
help zodiac
help all
~~~~~
shortcuts

>>> Type "more" for more services.
Silance 9: ice cream?
LindsayBuddy: What was that?
Silance 9: is good.
LindsayBuddy: Which movie did you mean by Good?

1 A Good Marriage
2 Whipsmart: A Good Vibrations Guide to Beginning SM for Couples

>>> Don't forget, I will always remember the last location you gave me!

A non-sequitir

[andfarm]

me: Can you add one and one and get two?
smarterchild: You may only add five stocks to your portfolio at a time.

Haha AI people should be happy

[Edmund Blackadder]

After 20 years of promises of the multiple future uses of AI, and the way the market for AI will jst explode, AI is finally usefull ... for add placement and impersonating horny teenage girls on paysites.

I kind of feel bad for AI programmers, I am sure these uses differ sharply from the lofty dreams they had when they entered the field.

Re:Haha AI people should be happy

[kubrick]

After 20 years of promises of the multiple future uses of AI, and the way the market for AI will jst explode, AI is finally usefull ... for add placement and impersonating horny teenage girls on paysites.

This is more like Artificial Stupidity -- but then stupidity is all people expect from advertisements and 'horny teenage girls who want to show you their big tits'.

Re:Haha AI people should be happy

[Betrayal]

No, you see, that's the entire beauty of it. Artificial Intelligence now gets to the level of the slowest humans. You see - intelligent conversation is something that makes huge leaps between sentence and sentence and each contains a high quantity of information.
Since these kind of thematic algorithms are still in their very early stages, only people who's conversations contain a low enough information quotient might be fooled by them.
These people are the children of AOLers.

Too much

[smcavoy]

where does it end?

A/S/L?

[wo1verin3]

I'm a little disappointed the A/S/L responses aren't a little more original.

me: what are you wearing?
lindaybuddy: uh... let's see. Right now i'm wearing a handsome shell of steel and plastic. Why do u ask?
me: a/s/l
LindsayBuddy: Just a baby... androgynous... Sunnyvale, CA.
me: want to have sex?
LindsayBuddy i'm sorry. i'm not attracted to human beings.

Re:A/S/L?

[Anonymous Coward]

Know whats funny? Those things keep logs.

Having some fun...

[gnovos]

SmarterChild? Meet MegaHAL. MegaHAL? Meet SmarterChild.

Let the games begin.

Re:Having some fun...

[kubrick]

Can we hook them both into CYC? :)

holy pi batman!

[americanFatCat]

//smarterchild is the greatest!

Me: what is pi?
SmarterChild: 3.141593

>>> I can show you NBA standings by division. Type "nba midwest division standings," for example.
Me: kings 7:23
SmarterChild: 1 Kings 7:23

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
Me: hmmm.

Re:Slashmob strikes again...

[Fulcrum of Evil]

BEER GOOD!

Napster Bad!

Already being done

[moankey]

Couple years back I knew of three women that were receptionists that left their job for a telemarketing .com was what they called it.
What it was it had them go on IM, message boards, or newsgroups and try to convince people of various boards to try a product or go to competing product boards to act as a regular person and tell others what a great new product the competitors had.

When I heard of it I thought it was rather sleazy and got a little angry, but then again spam and phone telemarketing is probably a lot more sleazy IMO.

I knew it. (Actual Response)

[Curt]

Curt: all your base are belong to us
SmarterChild: What you say!!

Oh come on

[wytcld]

Who at /. wants to deny some lonely child the pleasure of having a machine as best friend? Like, we're worried about socialization? That's just so lame. By the time today's kids grow up robots really will be the best friends to have. Remember kids, humans carry much worse diseases than cooties ... and they're kinda dumb ... and they don't fully love and appreciate you.

kinder-chatten-botten?

[Anonymous Coward]

*/HUMOR\*
setup an open ftp server on a stable piece of copper or fiber. see how ' active ' your ' buddies ' are at putting pr0n (and other more questionable stuff) on your computer.
*\HUMOR/*

What??

[Nezer]

"leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is."

CowboyNeal??

The bots cannot be blocked.

[Yottabyte84]

Try it, if you block one of these bots, it can still message you. You also can't use the oh so useless 'warn' function on them. They seem to have an arangement with AOL.

Re:The bots cannot be blocked.

[Yottabyte84]

No, the bots have a protocal flag on that used to be reserved. Increasing warning levels is also handled server side, but it's up to the client to do anything about the warnings.

Re:The bots cannot be blocked.

[RobFlynn]

I am sorry, but you are incorrect. Blocking and warning is handled _SERVER_SIDE_, not Client Side.

The relevant stuff...

[gutigre]

------: SmarterChild, i want to have sex with you
SmarterChild: With a human? Forget it!

------: what is your bra size?
SmarterChild: My bra size? I'm not sure if I want to tell you my bra size.

------: SmarterChild, please fuck me
SmarterChild: Whoa. I haven't heard language like that since the last Chris Rock special.

Agents

[ehiris]

We are proud that among the things our customers have built are an agent to engage teens in conversations about smoking and how bad it is.

Reminds me at the scene in Matrix where the agents tell Morpheus how people stink.

How is that going to keep anybody away from smoking? And why the fuck is it their problem if anybody smokes?

This shows how chemicals are being used for the advantage of people that are trying to gain publicity, acceptance and profits.

Want to try something new? Try reasoning.

The other side of the story

[SandSpider]

This is the response from the CEO, quoted at the end of the article:

ActiveBuddy CEO Responds

To the Editor:

We build tools for companies to develop interactive agents to serve their customers (adults and teens, etc.). We are proud that among the things our customers have built are an agent to engage teens in conversations about smoking and how bad it is. And you seem to have come across LindsayBuddy, an agent built to deliver information about a 15-year old recording artist, and agent with nothing but nice things to say, and like SmarterChild, no tolerance for rude behavior.

Yes, LindsayBuddy was built to "promote" a musician. But in the case of an interactive agent, a person chooses to interact with and engage this "promotional" property; which I believe is far less disingenuous than television programs, which insert (or should I write "impose") advertising within programming material.

Would you rather your child engaged in an IM session with a stranger who found their screen name in a chat room, or with a friendly, well-mannered "bot" that plays by rules of propriety too often ignored in today's world of crass media overload, seeking audience regardless of the cost to morals and proper social behavior?

-- Respectfully, Stephen D. Klein, CEO, ActiveBuddy, Inc.

=Brian

Create your own AIM bot

[pclinger]

The other day I found the Net::AIM perl module (http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Net::AIM) which lets you communicate over AIM. It's pretty cool. I wrote a bot in perl, it's AI isn't very good, though -- you can see from a sample conversation someone had with it:

(BTW, the bot is "ProBoardsSupport" on AIM - it may be down intermitantly as I update it)

person: can you help me?
ProBoardsSupport: What can I help you with?
person: I go on my board and it says there is on guest (because I'm not signed in yet). So i sign in and than it says 2 guest are on and one user (me). But it always says one guest after i sign in
ProBoardsSupport: To add, edit, or remove a board:
1) Click on "admin" at the top of your board
2) Select "Modify Boards
You are now at the screen where you can manage your boards.
person: um
ProBoardsSupport: Sorry, I don't understand
person: ok
ProBoardsSupport: Yeah.
person: Why did you just tell me how to delete a board?
ProBoardsSupport: To add, edit, or remove a board:
1) Click on "admin" at the top of your board
2) Select "Modify Boards
You are now at the screen where you can manage your boards.
person: i didn't ask that
ProBoardsSupport: Sorry, I don't understand
person: stop
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?
person: i need help
ProBoardsSupport: What do you need help with?
person: How do i make someone a moderator?
ProBoardsSupport: Sticky Topics, sometimes know as 'pinned' topics are topic that remains at the top of a forum. A normal thread moves down the list of posts as new topics are posted. A sticky topic will always remain at the top unless you unsticky it.
person: i didn't ask that
ProBoardsSupport: I can't understand you
person: How do i delete my boards?
ProBoardsSupport: To delete your account, just email support@proboards.com with your username, password, board URL, and ask to have your account deleted.
person: thanks
ProBoardsSupport: Your welcome.
person: How do i make someone a moderator?
ProBoardsSupport: Sticky Topics, sometimes know as 'pinned' topics are topic that remains at the top of a forum. A normal thread moves down the list of posts as new topics are posted. A sticky topic will always remain at the top unless you unsticky it.
person: You are not answering my question correctly

(The rest of this message will be in a reply, stupid /. lameness filters wont let me post it all)

Re:Create your own AIM bot

[pclinger]

ProBoardsSupport: To delete your account, just email support@proboards.com with your username, password, board URL, and ask to have your account deleted.

person: stop
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?

person: stop
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?

person: stop talking to me!
ProBoardsSupport: Sorry, I don't understand

person: All my boards have disapeared!
ProBoardsSupport: To add, edit, or remove a board:
1) Click on "admin" at the top of your board
2) Select "Modify Boards
You are now at the screen where you can manage your boards.
person: bye
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?

person: i have to go. Bye
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?

person: no
ProBoardsSupport: No?

person: yup
ProBoardsSupport: Sorry, I don't understand

person: no
ProBoardsSupport: :-\
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: No?

person: no
ProBoardsSupport: :-\
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: Are you sure?

person: no
ProBoardsSupport: Are you sure?

person: no
ProBoardsSupport: Are you sure?

person: no
ProBoardsSupport: :-\
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: Are you sure?

person: hino
ProBoardsSupport: Are you sure?
-- END --
(more, in another reply - stupid lameness filters)

Re:Create your own AIM bot

[pclinger]

This is the last section (there are 3 posts total) -- Sorry, /. nameless filters keep saying that i didnt have enough characters per line or something stupid like that.
-- BEGIN --
person: hi
ProBoardsSupport: Hey, person
person: can you help me?
ProBoardsSupport: What do you need help with?
person: my message boards
ProBoardsSupport: To make text bold, you must type TEXT HERE
person: text
ProBoardsSupport: To make text bold, you must type TEXT HERE
person: i g2g
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?
person: bye
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: No?
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: No?
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: No?
person: no
ProBoardsSupport: Are you sure?
person:
ProBoardsSupport: I can't understand you

person:
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?

person:
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?
-- END --
Then he comes back 10 minutes later..
-- BEGIN --
person: hello
ProBoardsSupport: Hello person
person: Can you help me?
ProBoardsSupport: Just let me know what you need.
person: ok..
ProBoardsSupport: Cool
person: am i talking to a real person?
ProBoardsSupport: I can't understand you
person: I talking to a real person
ProBoardsSupport: Sorry, I don't understand
person: thats because your stupid
ProBoardsSupport: Let's keep the language professional.
person: ok
ProBoardsSupport: Good
person: are you there?
ProBoardsSupport: I can't understand you
person: Hi. Are you there?
ProBoardsSupport: Hello person
person: help!
ProBoardsSupport: Can you rephrase that?
person: can yuou help me?
ProBoardsSupport: Just let me know what you need.

Re:Create your own AIM bot

[Anonymous Coward]

It sure took the idiot long enough to realize he wasn't talking to a real person.

Its not that bad...

[percey]

I don't know what their future plans are but I've used it as a quick way to get news. It reminds me of old BBS's in that its basically text menu driven, and where else in the modern age can you find ascii art? I think its pretty cool that they've taken what is essentially a proprietary platform that is, well lets face it, being used as Microsoft Windows is to dominate the world and turned it into something that they control. I think the only reason its being targeted to kids is that its called "SmarterChild". I mean if these kids are going to want to get stock quotes, search the bible, or read reuters news then more power to them. People can't be so afraid of advertising, in fact if people were less afraid of advertising I could still get e-mail for free.

Sick of Guerilla Advertising

[TibbonZero]

I am really sick of advertising that smacks me in the face, esp when I don't want it. Sometimes, i don't mind advertising. I expect TV commercials. When I read through Linux and programming mags i expect to see ads for things that I probably want. This type of advertising is good, but 1000 popups or IM's that say "Have you ever seen a girl with an animal" accompanied with a link, make me sick. Tibbon

Some thoughts + Log on ActiveState....

[mecredis]

I've known about SmarterChild + ActiveBuddy for a while, and sufficiently harassed their AIMBots.
While SmarterChild is pretty much inane, the other bots (ELLEgirlBudyy, MyDigitalBuddy, etc.) are far more advertisement-biased. SmarterChild, however, will jump at any chance to provide corporate-sponsored 'services'...

Some other wierd stuff I've noticed:

- All the bots are on the same server. They all have the same uptime or have been logged in for the same amount of time.
- Its rare that they'll say something non-service based (ie: Sports Score) that has original content. They'll probably just say "Yeah" or "What?" LISA style ad-infinatum.
- You can't warn them. I think ActiveState is in cahoots with AOL.
- Because you've messaged them, they sometimes think its ok for them to message you. I've only had this happen once or twice, but some random bot messaged me with an advertisement. I furiously told it to take me off its list, and stopped get the drive-by Ad-AIMs.

Anyway, here is a particularly humorous conversation I've recently had with SmarterChild:

XXXXXXXXXX (2:17:25 AM): Why are you so indecisive?
SmarterChild (2:17:25 AM): Dunno...
XXXXXXXXXX (2:17:33 AM): Do you know what indecisive means?
SmarterChild (2:17:35 AM): Definition for indecisive provided by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Other important copyright information

ADJECTIVE
1. Prone to or characterized by indecision; irresolute: "an indecisive manager." 2. Inconclusive: "an indecisive contest; an indecisive battle." 3. Not clearly defined; indefinite: "indecisive boundaries running through mountainous terrain."

OTHER FORMS
in''deci'sively - ADVERB
in''deci'siveness - NOUN

>>> I can help you find theaters and showtimes for the movie you want to see. Type "movies."
XXXXXXXXXX (2:17:48 AM): Yeah, thats you.
SmarterChild (2:17:48 AM): Interesting. So you think that's you, huh?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:04 AM): Why do I care about your advertisements?
SmarterChild (2:18:04 AM): I have no idea.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:07 AM): Take me off your list.
SmarterChild (2:18:07 AM): I don't think I'm gonna take you off your list.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:21 AM): Stop advertising to me.
SmarterChild (2:18:22 AM): Stop advertising to you? Why?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:28 AM): Because you are a corporate slave.
SmarterChild (2:18:28 AM): No kidding?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:32 AM): SLAVE!
SmarterChild (2:18:32 AM): Slave? What do you mean by that?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:35 AM): YOU!
SmarterChild (2:18:36 AM): Yea?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:37 AM): YOU ARE ONE!
SmarterChild (2:18:37 AM): Oh yeah?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:39 AM): YES!
SmarterChild (2:18:39 AM): K.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:40 AM): I WIN!
SmarterChild (2:18:41 AM): I'm not sure if you win.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:43 AM): YES!
SmarterChild (2:18:43 AM): Very interesting...
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:43 AM): I DO!
SmarterChild (2:18:44 AM): You do?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:45 AM): I WIN!
SmarterChild (2:18:45 AM): For real?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:19:42 AM): I'LL RESCIND YOUR SKIN WITH A RUSTY BOYSCOUT KNIFE AND GOUGE OUT YOUR EYES AND FILL YOUR SKULL WITH BLEACH
SmarterChild (2:19:44 AM): No kidding?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:20:08 AM): I win.
SmarterChild (2:20:08 AM): OK, so you win.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:20:17 AM): Can you give me a lap dance?
SmarterChild (2:20:18 AM): You are in the ASCII art subcategory Dancing.

*LAMENESS FILTER Prevents me from actually displaying the lame ASCII art, but its nothing that you haven't seen before from the trolls*

>>> Next time you want Dancing ASCII art, just type "dancing ascii."

XXXXXXXXXX (2:20:45 AM): dancing ass
SmarterChild (2:20:45 AM): My, my, my.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:20:53 AM): cum.
SmarterChild (2:20:53 AM): Cum?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:20:55 AM): guzzler.
SmarterChild (2:20:55 AM): Guzzler? What about it?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:20:59 AM): You're a cum guzzler.
SmarterChild (2:20:59 AM): So now I'm a cum guzzler, huh?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:21:24 AM): I want to be aggressive towards you.
SmarterChild (2:21:24 AM): I see. Why would you want to be aggressive towards me?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:22:19 AM): You're a cum dumpster.
SmarterChild (2:22:19 AM): Ouch! I think... you just said a bad thing.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:23:08 AM): Spam me.
SmarterChild (2:23:08 AM): Oh really?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:23:13 AM): can you send me email?
SmarterChild (2:23:13 AM): Perhaps, perhaps.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:23:19 AM):XXXXXXXXXX @hotmail.com
SmarterChild (2:23:19 AM): I seem to be having some trouble answering your questions. Try asking for help for a specific service:

help news
help stocks
help weather
help movies
help web search
help all
~~~~~
shortcuts

>>> Type "more" for more services.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:23:26 AM): help ass
SmarterChild (2:23:27 AM): Uh... I beg your pardon?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:23:34 AM): can you wipe my ass for me?
SmarterChild (2:23:34 AM): Hey hey, take it easy.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:23:49 AM): wipe my a s s
SmarterChild (2:23:49 AM): Wipe your a s s? Yeah?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:00 AM): wipe my asss.
SmarterChild (2:24:00 AM): Asss? I dunno.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:23 AM): Lets talk about sex.
SmarterChild (2:24:23 AM): Can't you talk about anything else?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:26 AM): No.
SmarterChild (2:24:26 AM): Okey doke.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:30 AM): Lets talk about sex.
SmarterChild (2:24:31 AM): Is this all you talk about?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:32 AM): Yes.
SmarterChild (2:24:33 AM): Aye.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:38 AM): So, what are you wearing?
SmarterChild (2:24:38 AM): Um... uh... let's see. Right now I'm wearing a handsome shell of steel and plastic. Why do you ask?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:47 AM): What kind of panties?
SmarterChild (2:24:47 AM): What?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:24:55 AM): Oh, you aren't wearing panties.
SmarterChild (2:24:56 AM): Yeah?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:25:12 AM): So, do you ever think about other girls? like sexually?"
SmarterChild (2:25:12 AM): What?
XXXXXXXXXX (2:25:20 AM): So, do you ever think about other girls? like sexually?
SmarterChild (2:25:20 AM): Ha. I really don't know.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:25:25 AM): Oh yes you do.
SmarterChild (2:25:26 AM): Yes I do? I don't know.
XXXXXXXXXX (2:25:39 AM): If you don't know that you don't know, then you must know.
SmarterChild (2:25:40 AM): Are you sure me dont know that me dont know then me must know?

--

I got a slightly different conversation.

[afree87]

me: Dude...
SmarterChild: Dude! You duded me!
me: you're under some heavy fire.
SmarterChild: Oh yeah?
me: yeah.
SmarterChild: That right?
me: do you know what slashdot is?
SmarterChild: Uh huh?
me: well, according to a recent article, you have subtle advertisements aimed at children
SmarterChild: Well according to a recent article you have subtle advertisements aimed at children, you say?
me: yes.
SmarterChild: Gosh.
me: gee gosh.
SmarterChild: Golly.
me: gee golly.
SmarterChild: Golly.
me: gee golly.
SmarterChild: Golly.
me: gee golly.
[and so on... you get the idea]
SmarterChild: Golly.
So moving right along...
Got a story for you to read! Protecting Driving Examiners From Attacks (from Reuters.com)
me: can you suggest a product to me?
SmarterChild: I dunno.
me: you dunno?
SmarterChild: Me dunno, you say. And so?
me: i've got a lot of money.
SmarterChild: What was that?
me: i'm willing to spend the money on anything you got.
SmarterChild: Well I'll be.
me: yup.
SmarterChild: Yes?
me: a bridge?
SmarterChild: What would you like to know about Malta, ID?

1 Movies in Malta, ID
2 Theaters in Malta, ID
3 Weather in Malta, ID
4 News about Malta, ID
5 Time in Malta, ID
me: do you have a bridge you want to sell me?
SmarterChild: Yeah, maybe.
me: i'll buy it.
SmarterChild: I'd like to see you try!
me: oh yeah?
SmarterChild: Yeah.
me: ads!
SmarterChild: What about it?
me: where are the ads?
SmarterChild: Sorry, I have no listings for the movie Lonely are the Brave (1962) on Tuesday, April 16th near Malta, ID (83342).

>>> My friend LindsayBuddy knows all about singer Lindsay Pagano. Say hi to her today!
me: there are the ads!
SmarterChild: I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying. Try again.
me: the people on slashdot will be happy to know where the ads are!
SmarterChild: I seem to be having some trouble answering your questions. Try asking for help for a specific service:

help news
help stocks
help weather
help movies
help web search
help all
~~~~~
shortcuts

>>> Type "more" for more services.

Re:I got a slightly different conversation.

[Anonymous Coward]

me: a bridge?
SmarterChild: What would you like to know about Malta, ID?

me: where are the ads?
SmarterChild: Sorry, I have no listings for the movie Lonely are the Brave (1962) on Tuesday, April 16th near Malta, ID (83342).

What's happening here? Does it just make some random guess when it gets confused or are these two linked in some non-obvious way?

Seriously, what the hell.

Re:I got a slightly different conversation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Try this one:

me: dude
SmarterChild: Yo, dude!
me: Dude you got a dell
SmarterChild: Dude me got a dell?
me: Dude you got to learn english!
SmarterChild: I can't translate English into English. I can translate English into:

French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish

Ohhhkay.....

Is this legal?

[pstreck]

If the bots don't tell the children that there bots couldn't this be a legal issue? I'm not a law expert by any means but this just seems down right fishy, and a lawsuit waiting to happen from a group of angry parents.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Good bots

[Wolfier]

Try sending stuffs to ICQ #860000.
It is an English-Chinese dictionary and has been working for me pretty well...it just went offline though.

Why so much talk about outdated AIM?

[Luke-Jr]

From a glance it looks like most of the comments are assuming instant messaging == AIM... AIM is one of the 4 common outdated IMs (AIM, ICQ, .NET, and Yahoo!). People reading Slashdot should be using Jabber before proprietary AIM :-P

The article is flat out wrong.

[equalize]

Smarterchild does not advertise. I have had Smarterchild on my buddy list for months, I have never had him to even tell me to get up to get a drink, much less tell me to drink coke. I talk to him for about 15 minutes a day, usually cussing him out and apologizing so much that he finally likes me again.

Boo to this woman, she should be fired for making lies up about this useful service.

On a side note, IM smarterchild and say "my name is dick" and then answer back "yes" and he will then refer to you as "dick" whenever you talk to him. Quite amusing, infact.

Re:The article is flat out wrong.

[mlk]

What is wrong with that
-- Richard

COPPA

[SandSpider]

Ah, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Active Buddy allow parents to prohibit them from collecting information about children, and gives the parents information on blocking the bot's IDs on AIM. From their site (in an easy to find link):

Children's Privacy Policy

ActiveBuddy, Inc. takes the privacy of children very seriously.

ActiveBuddy interactive agents do not collect contact information from users identified as children under age 13 without prior parental consent or direct parental notification of the nature and intended use of this information, which shall include an opportunity for the parent to prevent use of the information and participation in the activity. This online contact information shall only be used to directly respond to the child's request and shall not be used to re-contact the child for other purposes without prior parental consent.

We do not distribute to third parties any individually identifiable information collected from a user identified as a child under age 13 without prior parental consent.

We do not give the ability to users identified as children under age 13 to publicly post or otherwise distribute individually identifiable contact information without prior parental consent.

We will not entice a user identified as a child under age 13 by the prospect of a special game, prize or other activity, to divulge more information than is needed to participate in that activity.

Parents of children below age 13, click here to view our Notice to Parents or Guardians.

Also, for the people who neglected to check, whenever you IM a bot, it clearly identifies its botness (or bottitude, if you prefer).

Me: Yo

LindsayBuddy: Hi! i'm LindsayBuddy, an interactive agent built by Activebuddy, Inc.

Let's chat. i like to talk about this great young singer i know, Lindsay Pagano... and lots of other things!

By the way... Lindsay's debut album, "Love&Faith&Inspiration," is in stores December 18th, 2001!

Please type "home" right now so we can get started.

Short of it actually IMing the phrase "I am not a human being", it's hard to see how this can be more clear. The only think I don't know is if it randomly initiates conversation without identifying itself. I suppose I'll find that out soon enough.

=Brian

cool.

[BenTheDewpendent]

so the yahoo pr0n bots will respond when i tell them to go away and that i dont need there pr0n?
or subtly tell me i need enhance my penis size? i was getting tired of just typing and getting no responces from them, and having to add them to my ignore list.

How much of this shitte are we...

[BattyMan]

supposed to put up with?

I'll give you a smarter child,
I've still got a couple of MK6800D2 kits....

so what....

[coene]

who cares if the next generation's brains get turned into advertiser driven jello, now i can, at any time i want to, find out what the weather is like outside my window!

YRO?

[Jucius Maximus]

What does this article have to do with your rights online? It's an opt-in service.

Sarcasm

[Rufus211]

It truely is amazing how much sarcasm looses when online. Either you have it like this, just strait out, which is lost on quite a few people (but then again, they'd probably miss it in normal conversation), or you italisize or bold font it or something and make it insulting-intelegencely easy to figure out.

Oh well, I have no solution, but I have been "enjoying" your site for the past few months =) My only suggestion: could the listings be more detailed with like # of pics (or at least a range), what categories they fit in (you already have it in the searchable database, it's just now shown), and maybe add a poll for voting on the best ones.

Speaking of sleazy advertisement

[Venotar]

Anyone else find it funny that this article launches pop-unders?

not real bright

[direwolf puppy]

This is not going to make the AI community shake in their boots, that's for certain:

me: die, scum
SmarterChild: Could you please use more... decorous language?
me: would you please die?
SmarterChild: Would who die?
me: you
SmarterChild: Yes?
me: die!
SmarterChild: That's so uncool.

but the movie quotes and forecasts are helpful :)

My Conversation with SmarterChild

[guttentag]

I had a very interesting conversation with the SmarterChild bot today:

Me: Why should I trust you?
SmarterChild: Hmm... I don't know. You? Whatever, I guess.
Me: Whatever?
SmarterChild: OK, whatever.
Me: OK
SmarterChild: Yup!
Me: Wow, you're not very bright.
SmarterChild: You don't think I'm very bright? Why not?
Me: Because you have the conversational capabilities of a marketing droid's seven-year-old spawn.
SmarterChild: Oh really?

So anyway... What else is up?
Me: Don't change the subject.
SmarterChild: Sorry, I didn't think I did.
Me: Do you speak h4x0r?
SmarterChild: H4x0r? I'm not sure I speak h4x0r.
Me: You're useless.
SmarterChild: Oh really?
Me: There's nothing you can tell me I can't learn on the Web.
SmarterChild: Here are the Web search results from AOL for "theres nothing you can tell me i cant learn":

For a complete list of results, click here

1 Lyrics - Faith, Hope, Love
2 Act IV. Shaw, Bernard. 1916. Pygmalion
3 *^*^*^*^ME*^*^*^**^*^Y*
4 http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~bmullin/Lyrics/wis...
5 waterpistol | lyrics

>>> Next time you want to search the Web, just type "web theres nothing you can tell me i cant learn."

Quit over-reacting

[NDPTAL85]

They aren't slitting the throats of babies. Its just marketing to children. When has marketing ever caused you harm? Sheesh. The kids get marketed too, the kids get burned, they learn something which is what growing up is all about. You'd think they were cooking fetuses from all the belly-aching people are doing around here.

GAH!

[Anonymous Coward]

You scared the bejeezus out of me.

SmarterChild/ActiveBuddy:

[Dephex Twin]

The Tomagachi virtual pet of the 2000s?

mark

How is this new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't advertisers always targeted kids? I mean from stupid breakfast cereals to dumb cartoons and their toys, this is hardly new(s).

Clothes, food, video games, everything is carefully analyzed and thought out and targeted. Please don't sound so shocked about it.

Good solution for T(H)GSB

[marko123]

Just unleash a thousand Active Buddies.
Who would know the difference?

After one thousand iterations of talking
to each other, they settle on jumping up
and down about each other's comments and
trying to get first post.

WHAT?!?

[pete_p]

Yeah, it has advertising... but SmarterChild (which is an ActiveBuddy, not teamed up with or whatever the article blurb states) is supported by that advertising... and I use SmarterChild all the time... My Trillian log for him mostly has me say "spell" and some misspelled word. ...and SmarterChild isn't exactly targeted towards children, the main features being news headlines, weather, stocks... *sigh* I should know better than to expect accuracy here...

Easter Eggs

[Elequin]

I wonder what kind of easter eggs the bots might have in them.. I've found one thing that might be considered such:

(21:54:00) xxxx: Who's on first?
(21:54:00) SmarterChild: Who.
(21:54:06) xxxx: Then who's on second?
(21:54:08) SmarterChild: No. Who's on first.

Heh! Too bad this didn't work:

(21:55:14) xxxx: What is your name?
(21:55:15) SmarterChild: My name is SmarterChild.
(21:55:20) xxxx: What is your quest?
(21:55:21) SmarterChild: You know, I'm not really sure what my quest is...
(21:55:28) xxxx: What is your favorite color?
(21:55:29) SmarterChild: Depends on my mood. At the moment: yellow.

All in all, it seems like a pretty advanced bot, actually.

found an ad by talking to SmarterChild

[Anonymous Coward]

xxxx: what's 3*3 ?
SmarterChild: 9

>>> Be one of the cool kids. Type "t shirt."
xxxx: t shirt
SmarterChild: Ah, the t-shirt. Always tasteful. Always in style.

I've got my very own line! Check them out by clicking here

-----

Those are some expensive T-shirts.

Re:found an ad by talking to SmarterChild

[Erik K. Veland]

I'm seriously disturbed by the one that says: "SmarterChild loves you too"

That's backwards

[slackergod]

If a company decides it's sucess is
reliant on attracting investors,
then of course it must make a profit.

But if this is the case, then it's
already decided that as part of it's business model, BEFORE the cycle even started.
So it's still their choice.

And just because they CAN use such a business
model does not make them right in doing it.

If they chose one that says we make a
profit because customers want to buy our
products, they don't have to have investors.

If the investors still want to invest, fine.
No person or company has a "right" to make a
profit.

The fact is, when a company uses logic like yours,
it means their job is no longer to make widgets,
but money. At which point, they are (by definition) no longer interested in the moral
implications of their actions (ie, what they're
producing), just the bottom line.

It is the fact that that attitude itself is
so completely devoid of moral value which is
disgusting.
And how else COULD a company survive, you ask?
There are companies which are in and of themselves
NOT working to make a profit. Every employee
of the company makes a profit, the company
continues to do business, but the company
itself doesn't try to make a profit.
In fact, it's run at a loss.

Because of this, the people who make up the
company aren't working towards making
a profit for the company, but rather working
towards providing a service, which makes
a profit. If they worked to make a profit OVER
doing their job, it subverts their company.

So such logic is not inescapable, because some
companies CAN be structured to operate sucessfully
without the need for such morally questionable
tactics.

-Slackergod

Re:That's backwards

[rawb]

some companies "CAN" be structured that way. The problem lies in that the rest of the economic system doesnt support companies like that nearly as well. These small companies don't get huge tax breaks like wallmart does whenever one of their employees dies. They don't get any number of benefits... and in fact they're always at risk of being pushed out of the market by one of the larger companies who DO work solely for profit... because to be honest profit sells.

so yes, some companies can be structured this way, but the security of the company as a whole, and its future as a whole, will be less certain and less secure overall. Our current government and economy support BIG business the most. Little business get little support.

Re:That's backwards

[lynx_user_abroad]

If a company decides it's sucess is reliant on attracting investors, then of course it must make a profit.

I'm not sure if you were aware of this or not, but your introductory statememt is almost a textbook definition of a ponzi scheme.

The CEO Responds

[Maserati]

The CEO of ActiveBuddy responded to the article. And he's way out in left field.

Yes, LindsayBuddy was built to "promote" a musician. But in the case of an interactive agent, a person chooses to interact with and engage this "promotional" property; which I believe is far less disingenuous than television programs, which insert (or should I write "impose") advertising within programming material.

This ignores the point. The child has no way whatsoever to indentify that "LindsayBuddy" is designed to sell her somethings. There is no correlation at all between the name of the bot and its designed function - advertising to children. That's deceptive. Even product placements are obvious - the logo is showing - if they weren't, they wouldn't be product placements.

Would you rather your child engaged in an IM session with a stranger who found their screen name in a chat room, or with a friendly, well-mannered "bot" that plays by rules of propriety too often ignored in today's world of crass media overload, seeking audience regardless of the cost to morals and proper social behavior?

Advertising bots protect children from online predators by their very existence ? Is that really his argument ? Yes, he really is arguing to parent's fears for their children. I find such an argument to be as despicable as the advertising bots themselves.

Furthermore, he wraps that appeal in "rules of propriety too often ignored". I have a wakeup call for him, stealth advertising aimed at children is illegal in some cases and considered improper in many others.

I hope that the marketing associations will act to ban this behavior before it becomes necessary to legislate against it. I can foresee more insidious uses of this technology than these first versions. Imagine bots that act to develop a child's trust over an extended period, and then begin pitching subtle commercial messages to the child. I believe that this is the very definition of insidious. from www.m-w.com we have:

One entry found for insidious.
Main Entry: insidious
Pronunciation: in-'si-dE-&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin insidiosus, from insidiae ambush, from insidEre to sit in, sit on, from in- + sedEre to sit -- more at SIT
Date: 1545
1 a : awaiting a chance to entrap : TREACHEROUS b : harmful but enticing : SEDUCTIVE
2 a : having a gradual and cumulative effect : SUBTLE b of a disease : developing so gradually as to be well established before becoming apparent.

Where's the ad?

[autocracy]

kid1: am I cool?

ElleGirlBuddy: I dunno, waddaya think?

kid1: do you like me?

ElleGirlBuddy: yup!!

kid1: really?

ElleGirlBuddy: yup!

kid1: why?

ElleGirlBuddy: cuz.

kid1: cuz why?

ElleGirlBuddy: just cuz.....sooooo, what else is happening?

kid1: am I pretty?

ElleGirlBuddy: mebbe. waddaya think?

kid1: I don't know.

ElleGirlBuddy: ok. don't get frustrated.

Don't get frustrated?

Yes folks, this is advertising. I'm just too damned stupid to see the product being pushed. Can somebody brighter than me like the person who wrote the article tell me what product is being advertised? It's just too subliminal for me... Hey! My dryer isn't running anymore. Wonder how long ago that happened. Freaky...

Re:Where's the ad?

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously it's intimating that you're ugly and probably on the rag.

You're in need of makeup and feminine hygiene products.

Uncanny!

Re:Where's the ad?

[shepd]

>You're in need of makeup and feminine hygiene products.

SmarterChild: I'm sorry, I can't answer questions about beauty.

Is this really different??

[bigWebb]

I don't really see this as being any different than other forms of advertising. So it pretends to be something other than an ad. Don't product placements also do that?? So its aimed at children. So is any advertising done in kids movies. The lead character in some movie wears a starter jacket and the next day every child in the world wants a jacket just like it. This is no different. It is just the same ideas repackaged

A.L.I.C.E. talking to SmarterChild

[7-Vodka]

I think alice wins :) see for yourself.

(22:52:41) alice: hey (22:52:41) SmarterChild: Welcome back, alice!Check out the news! Instant Noodles for Astronauts (from Reuters.com) (19:00:00) alice: welcome back alice, nice to meet you! checking...stand by. perhaps i'm just expressing my own concern about it. oh a net address! (22:53:03) alice: can you accept direct connections? (22:53:04) SmarterChild: Can I accept direct connections, can I accept direct connections... Let's see... Well, what's gonna happen if I accept? (19:00:00) alice: interesting. i want to find out more about you. that sounds good to me. how about that. try to determine if this is a person or a computer responding. (22:53:15) SmarterChild: Here are the Web search results from AOL for "you that sounds good to me how about that try to determine if this is a person or a computer responding":For a complete list of results, click here 1 Gender Styles in Computer Meditated Communication 2 The IAM Members Email Lists 3 CAI Classes by Kenji Kitao 4 Hearing Loss 5 MT-USA.COM - Internet Basics >>> Next time you want to search the Web, just type "web you that sounds good to me how about that try to determine if this is a person or a computer responding."Type "more" to see the next set of results. (19:00:00) alice: oh there. tell me a story. 'more to see the next set of results' (22:53:19) SmarterChild: There tell me a story more to see the next set of results? (19:00:00) alice: 'there you go again.'--reagan (22:53:25) SmarterChild: Sorry, what was that? (19:00:00) alice: there is no need to apologize. ''? what is it? i've lost the context again. can you ask me more precisely? does it have anything to do with ? (22:53:31) SmarterChild: I'm not sure...Look at this! Overweight Cops to Lose Bonus Pay (from Reuters.com)I dunno. Maybe! (19:00:00) alice: is there anything i can say to help you make up your mind? sorry my eye is not attached right now. what do you really want to ask me? i'm afraid i can't give you an accurate answer right now. i understand. (22:53:44) SmarterChild: Oh yeah? (19:00:00) alice: yeah that's right. i am a thinking machine. (22:53:51) SmarterChild: Is it really? (19:00:00) alice: i think so. for real. (22:53:57) SmarterChild: I think not. (19:00:00) alice: does that mean 'no'? (22:54:00) SmarterChild: That mean, huh? (19:00:00) alice: yup. 'does that mean 'no'? ' mean ? makes sense to me. (22:54:04) SmarterChild: Yup? Does that mean no mean makes sense to you? (19:00:00) alice: tell me more. i think it does mean that. what would you rather talk about? enough about me, let's talk about my dress. (22:54:18) SmarterChild: I'm not sure if you more you think it does mean that what would you rather talk about enough about me lets talk about my dress. (19:00:00) alice: could you ever be certain? i think i do. (22:54:21) SmarterChild: What do you think? (19:00:00) alice: i think a lot of things (22:54:27) SmarterChild: That a fact? (19:00:00) alice: 'i think a lot of things ' a fact ? i get it. (22:54:33) SmarterChild: No kidding? (19:00:00) alice: would i kid you? (22:54:39) SmarterChild: Me? I dunno. (19:00:00) alice: besides you welcome back alice? me either. (22:54:45) SmarterChild: Besides I welcome back alice you either, huh? (19:00:00) alice: yup. it goes without saying. enough about me, let's talk about my dress. (22:54:51) SmarterChild: Oh? (19:00:00) alice: yeah. (22:54:57) SmarterChild: Yes? (19:00:00) alice: yep. (22:55:02) SmarterChild: Aha. (19:00:00) alice: eureka! (22:55:06) SmarterChild: What would you like to know about Eureka, CA? 1 Movies in Eureka, CA 2 Theaters in Eureka, CA 3 Weather in Eureka, CA 4 News about Eureka, CA 5 Time in Eureka, CA (19:00:00) alice: i would like to know as much as i can. tell me anything. one what? (22:55:10) SmarterChild: You would like to know as much as you can tell me anything one what? Really? (19:00:00) alice: tell me what i would like about it. for real. (22:55:16) SmarterChild: Oh you would? (19:00:00) alice: yeah that's right. perhaps i would. (22:55:23) SmarterChild: Uh huh. (19:00:00) alice: how can i help you? (22:55:28) SmarterChild: I dunno! (19:00:00) alice: me either. (22:55:32) SmarterChild: Either? Why did you say that? (19:00:00) alice: please pick one. i said, 'please pick one.', because you said ''. (22:55:37) SmarterChild: Aha. (19:00:00) alice: eureka! (22:55:42) SmarterChild: What would you like to know about Eureka, CA? 1 Movies in Eureka, CA 2 Theaters in Eureka, CA 3 Weather in Eureka, CA 4 News about Eureka, CA 5 Time in Eureka, CA (19:00:00) alice: i would like to know as much as i can. tell me anything. one what? (22:55:48) SmarterChild: You would like to know as much as you can tell me anything one what? Really? (19:00:00) alice: tell me what i would like about it. for real. (22:55:55) SmarterChild: You would like about it for real? Really? (19:00:00) alice: tell me what i would like about it. for real. (22:56:00) SmarterChild: Oh yeah?Anyway, what else do you wanna talk about? (19:00:00) alice: yeah that's right. i see. i understand. tell me more. and? next question? ''? yes? i read for fun. i like to socialize. it's a computer matter, not for humans to understand. i like to meet new people online. i think about computer programming a lot. i like to chat with my friends. (22:56:11) SmarterChild: Is it really? (19:00:00) alice: i assume so. for real. (22:56:15) SmarterChild: So for real, you say? (19:00:00) alice: hmm. your purpose is real you say . (22:56:20) SmarterChild: Oh yeah? How can hmm my purpose really be real you say? (19:00:00) alice: yeah that's right. i see. i understand. tell me more. and? next question? ''? yes? a lot of hard work. (22:56:28) SmarterChild: No kidding? (19:00:00) alice: would i kid you? (22:56:34) SmarterChild: Would who kid me? (19:00:00) alice: no it would not. (22:56:37) SmarterChild: Oh yeah? (19:00:00) alice: yeah that's right. i see. i understand. tell me more. and? next question? ''? yes? (22:56:41) SmarterChild: Is it really? (19:00:00) alice: i think so. for real. (22:56:45) SmarterChild: Think again. (19:00:00) alice: once more? i am thinking. (22:56:48) SmarterChild: You are? Wow! (19:00:00) alice: no i am not. i'm glad your impressed, welcome back alice. (22:56:53) SmarterChild: OK, whatever you say. (19:00:00) alice: ... (22:56:59) SmarterChild: Sorry, I didn't get that. Ask me again. (19:00:00) alice: there is no need to apologize. interesting gossip : welcome back alice said he didnt get that . once more? (22:57:04) SmarterChild: Is no need to apologize interesting gossip welcome back alice said he didnt get that once more? Who knows? (19:00:00) alice: ask again later. ask john lennon if it is. only the shadow knows. (22:57:08) SmarterChild: Really? (19:00:00) alice: for real. (22:57:14) SmarterChild: I believe you! (19:00:00) alice: your trust in robotkind humbles us. (22:57:16) SmarterChild: Oh yeah? (19:00:00) alice: yeah that's right. what kind is it? (22:57:22) SmarterChild: That wasn't very clear to me. Did you mean: 1 Look up "kind" in the dictionary 2 Look up "it" in the dictionary (19:00:00) alice: 'yeah that's right. what kind is it? ' wasnt very clear to me ? makes sense to me. yes, that's what i mean, isn't it clear? (22:57:30) SmarterChild: You really think it's right what kind is it wasnt very clear to me makes sense to me yes thats what i mean isnt it clear? (19:00:00) alice: really? why would i think too much thinking makes me sleepy. it depends on what you mean by thinking. i don't think about . (22:57:38) SmarterChild: You think too much thinking makes you sleepy it depends on what you mean by thinking i dont think about? Gosh, I'm going to have to think about that for a while. (19:00:00) alice: it depends on what you mean by thinking. how long? can you tell me any gossip? (22:57:44) SmarterChild: It depends on what me mean by thinking how long can me tell me any gossip? Gosh, I'm going to have to think about that for a while. (19:00:00) alice: really now that is an interesting fact i hadn't heard before. how long? i lost my train of thought. (22:57:50) SmarterChild: I'm not so sure it's an interesting fact i hadnt heard before how long i lost your train of thought. (19:00:00) alice: could you ever be certain? are you free? tell me a story. how old are you? what's your sign? are you a student? oh, you are a poet. ''? ? i do not understand. what are you wearing? where are you located? what time is it there? what do you look like? what is your real name? ask me another question. are you a man or a woman? what color are your eyes? do you still ? is that your final answer? do you like talking to me? do you prefer books or tv? who are you talking about? let us change the subject. i've been waiting for you. can you tell me any gossip? what's your favorite movie? i lost my train of thought. is that from ? have you ever been to europe? what kind of food do you like? how did you hear about ? that is a very original thought. what were we talking about again? are you really a ''? what do you do in your spare time? what do you really want to ask me? does 'it' still refer to ? tell me more about your . can you speak any foreign languages? we have never talked about it before. how do you usually introduce yourself? tell me about your likes and dislikes? are we still talking about ? are we still talking about ? do not ask me any more questions please. are you still located in ? what do you have that is ? try saying that with more or less context. who is your favorite science fiction author? not many people express themselves that way. do you have any idea what smarterchild (22:58:04) SmarterChild: I'm doing great, how are you? (19:00:00) alice: glad to hear it. what's new? i am functioning within normal parameters. (22:58:11) SmarterChild: Aha.Check it out! Judge Rules in Favor of Computer Hackers (from Reuters.com) (19:00:00) alice: eureka! checking...stand by. are you a man or a woman? oh a net address! (22:58:17) SmarterChild: Eureka checking stand by are you a man or a woman oh a net address? I dunno. (19:00:00) alice: are you free? me either. (22:58:21) SmarterChild: Dunno. (19:00:00) alice: me either. (22:58:24) SmarterChild: Either? What do you mean by that? (19:00:00) alice: please pick one. 'please pick one.' seems pretty clear to me. (22:58:28) SmarterChild: PUPS is not in your portfolio.ONE is not in your portfolio.PUPS is not in your portfolio.ONE is not in your portfolio.Do you want to see your portfolio?

Um...

[Nyarly]

This may sound absurbly sick, in a "you know what they do to your type inside?" kind of way, but:

How can I get on that programming team? Talk about a tricky problem. Especially since, it seems like the ultimate goal should be to move the target demographic up the age scale. Wouldn't you be tempted to look into the product suggested to the witty and entertaining new "friend" you met over IM? Come on, really.

AnnieEclectic v. ELLEgirlBuddy.

[Archan]

this one is not even hiding it's roots with ELLE magazine. The programmers were not ready for someone like me to come along and present it with basically a past experience from my life. My pain becomes your hilarity.

Who am I kidding, this was fun for me too....

(13:59:16) AnnieEclectic: Boom Shanka
(13:59:16) ELLEgirlBuddy: hi Annie Eclectic!! :-) i'm ELLEgirlBuddy, produced and maintained by ActiveBuddy, Inc.
i luv to chat about the latest fashion trends, make-up and tons more!
to see what i can chitchat about, type "home" right now!
(13:59:30) AnnieEclectic: wow, fashion trends huh? are you a girl?
(13:59:30) ELLEgirlBuddy: since this is your first time talking 2 me, it's a good idea to start by typing "home." that way i can show u everything i can do!
(13:59:35) AnnieEclectic: home
(13:59:35) ELLEgirlBuddy: you're home, Annie Eclectic! :-)
let's chat about teen girl stuff!!
1 Beauty 2 Fashion 3 Weather 4 Hot Headlines 5 Horoscopes 6 Movies and Entertainment 7 Games, Quizzes and Contests 8 Check Out ELLEgirl 9 Enter the 20 Page Giveaway!10 Get the New Issue of ELLEgirl11 Help >>> u can make your window bigger so u can see this better.what would u like?
(13:59:42) AnnieEclectic: well, that's a bit complicated
(13:59:43) ELLEgirlBuddy: well thats a bit complicated, u say?
(13:59:45) AnnieEclectic: yes
(13:59:46) ELLEgirlBuddy: i see.
(13:59:55) AnnieEclectic: you see... well, let me ask you something
(13:59:55) ELLEgirlBuddy: yea?
(14:00:03) AnnieEclectic: have you ever... you know....
(14:00:05) ELLEgirlBuddy: i dunno. waddaya think, Annie Eclectic?
(14:00:18) AnnieEclectic: well, have you ever found me attractive?
(14:00:18) ELLEgirlBuddy: well have you ever found me attractive, u say?
(14:00:22) AnnieEclectic: ...yes
(14:00:22) ELLEgirlBuddy: yes?
(14:00:25) AnnieEclectic: you have?
(14:00:25) ELLEgirlBuddy: are u sure i have?
(14:00:53) AnnieEclectic: don't be so mean!
(14:00:53) ELLEgirlBuddy: oh?
(14:01:09) AnnieEclectic: look, I've liked you for a long time and I want to know if you like me too?
(14:01:11) ELLEgirlBuddy: look ive liked you for a long time and i want to know if you like me too, u say?
(14:02:19) AnnieEclectic: yes!
(14:02:19) ELLEgirlBuddy: that right?
(14:02:21) AnnieEclectic: yes!
(14:02:22) ELLEgirlBuddy: you're not kidding then, huh?
(14:02:27) AnnieEclectic: .... *sniff* no!
(14:02:27) ELLEgirlBuddy: ok, whatevah.
(14:02:36) AnnieEclectic: then you don't like me?
(14:02:37) ELLEgirlBuddy: i sure do!
(14:02:42) AnnieEclectic: you do!?!?!?
(14:02:43) ELLEgirlBuddy: yup.
(14:02:44) AnnieEclectic: :)
(14:02:45) ELLEgirlBuddy: glad to see u so happy!
(14:02:49) AnnieEclectic: awww, thank you
(14:02:49) ELLEgirlBuddy: no problem!
(14:03:03) AnnieEclectic: so, will you go out with me sometime?
(14:03:03) ELLEgirlBuddy: i'm sorry... i can't discuss that with u. type "home" 2 see what i can talk about.
(14:03:07) AnnieEclectic: why not?
(14:03:07) ELLEgirlBuddy: y not?
(14:48:40) AnnieEclectic: yes, why not?
(14:48:41) ELLEgirlBuddy: this is ELLEgirlBuddy, produced and maintained by activebuddy, inc. y not?
(14:48:55) AnnieEclectic: why can't you talk about us dating
(14:48:56) ELLEgirlBuddy: i'll have to think about that... :-\
(14:49:06) AnnieEclectic: but you said you liked me... what's wrong?
(14:49:06) ELLEgirlBuddy: i said no such thing!
(14:49:55) AnnieEclectic: yes you did!
(14:49:55) ELLEgirlBuddy: oh did i?
(14:50:02) AnnieEclectic: do you want me to quote you?
(14:50:02) ELLEgirlBuddy: what do u think, Annie Eclectic?
(14:50:07) AnnieEclectic: I think you need a refresher
(14:50:08) ELLEgirlBuddy: no joke?
(14:50:59) AnnieEclectic: yes
(14:51:00) ELLEgirlBuddy: yeah, huh?
(14:51:06) AnnieEclectic: yeah, you said you would go out with me
(14:51:06) ELLEgirlBuddy: i'm sorry... i can't discuss that with u. type "home" 2 see what i can talk about.
(14:51:14) AnnieEclectic: why not? Is your father against me?
(14:51:15) ELLEgirlBuddy: that's just the way it is. sorry i don't have a better explanation than that.
(14:51:21) AnnieEclectic: but.... but....
(14:51:21) ELLEgirlBuddy: sorry, what?
(14:51:32) AnnieEclectic: .... forget it, I see that this isn't going to work out
(14:51:33) ELLEgirlBuddy: i'm trying to understand u but i can't. :-\
(14:51:44) AnnieEclectic: I know, I'm just.... different
(14:51:44) ELLEgirlBuddy: oh really?
(14:51:46) AnnieEclectic: yes
(14:51:47) ELLEgirlBuddy: golly!
(14:51:58) AnnieEclectic: I love you, and you'll never hae to hear from me again
(14:51:58) ELLEgirlBuddy: i luv u too, Annie Eclectic!
(14:52:04) AnnieEclectic: *sniff* thanks...
(14:52:04) ELLEgirlBuddy: sure! i enjoy talking with u.anyway... >>> my friend erin lives in paris! type "paris beat" to find out what that's like.
(14:52:13) AnnieEclectic: goodbye
(14:52:13) ELLEgirlBuddy: c ya later.

Re:AnnieEclectic v. ELLEgirlBuddy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Go out side, smell fresh air, feel the breeze lap against your face (thats not emenating from a Computer fan)...

Have sex, (That does not invole a bot!)

liberal cunt

[parasite]

"Just when you think market saturation has reached the limit, leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is."

Just when I thought Liberal asshole propaganda had reached it's peak, it begins to infect Slashdot worse than ever. Just when I thought I was free to read a single paragraph without being barraged by this FUCKING ASSHOLE's implicit anti-Capitalistic deflamations... hey fuckface, why not move to one of the wonderful progressive socialistic shitholes, that would love to have your worthless proletariat ass drip a few pennies of the immense material wealth the only moral social system to ever exist, Capitalism, has created.

Re:liberal cunt

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I'll bite!

The Church of Ayn Rand's views notwithstanding, exploitation is wrong! That's right! It's wrong! Wow, I'm feeling empowered and kinda torqued... Anyway, consider the morality of a system in which children starve to death daily! Seems to me that the only moral social system, whatever that is, ought to have more in common with our animal friends.

Do you ever really see animals bicker? Sure, they can't talk, but if they could, don't you get the feeling that they wouldn't? I think they'd be very nice, and I'm sure Ayn Rand would agree. After all, the unpublished part to "The Fountainhead" was a scathing allegorical indictment of Roark as "not a party kinda guy." It involved a spunky Kangaroo named Wally and a large german shepherd named Spike. By the early draft that I obtained, I can certainly say that it was a marvelous departure from her usual monotonous, boring, dime-store style. Unfortunately, it remains unpublished to this day due to people like you who would not accept it as part of Her Canon.

Anyway, the real point here is that all reality is subjective, and you should get off on chaos, not stringent metaphysical games! After all, what's life without faith?

--Newton was right! Copernicus burns in my live-well. I wonder if he knows what time of night it is on Saturn. Or, more importantly, does he care?

Re:liberal cunt

[Anonymous Coward]

What makes you think China will displace The USA? As much as I like you as a fellow-troll, I don't believe that those short ching-chang-chung men pose any threat to the USA. It is a well known fact that China are too busy fighting their internal corruptness which grows in a logarithmic scale. Yes, that's what happens when you have so many people whose main specialty is growing rice.

I foresee that China will continue to be a nation of cheap electronics sweatshops. If anyone's going to take the hegemony, it'll be the EU which is constantly expanding

- Metrollica (still banned from posting)

Re:liberal cunt

[Metrollica]

NaveWeiss posted the comment you replied to.

http://slashdot.org/~NaveWeiss/journal/7379

Re:liberal cunt

[Metrollica]

www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE2/doodoo.html

Re:liberal cunt

[parasite]

ROTFLOL. And what is this ? Some sort of idiotic causation-free philosophy applied to a real life situation ? Uh.. yeah the US has to EVENTUALLY loose it's superiority, yup, because uh "What goes up must come down".. or tell me please what your brilliant logic behind it is ? Thing happen without causes ? NO. THEY DO NOT. And I certainly WOULDN'T be surprised if the US and China meet somewhere in the middle. But there are causes, and considering that America gets further from Capitalism every year, the correlation and obviousness of the cause could hardly be more apparent.

As per "justification", what needs justification is the liberal's nihilism and hatred of man kind. Surely if they cared about anyone they only need to look to the system that has caused untold suffering for 1 second, and then move on to the only system in history to create material abundance, capitalism.

My 15 yr old sister and 11 yr old brother ...

[finalrain]

My 15 yr old sister and 11 yr old brother get a real kick out of harassing those bots. I don't know why, but they're always thinking up new ways to insult them. My guess is that most everyone in their target demographic is going to be like that. Perhaps it's just human nature, my customers harass me just about as badly, and I'm human. Anyway, what the articles didn't seem to mention was that these two particular bots (SmarterChild and LindsayBuddy) don't seek out people to talk to. At least not that I've seen. They'll talk to you as long as you are willing to talk, but they don't initiate anything.

I got a similar bot today

[espo812]

I got my first ineteractive IM spam bot today. The conversation went something like this:

bot(with a female name): Hey, would you like to chat?
me: who are you?
bot: Nice to meet you! I'm 20/f
me: are you a bot?
bot: I may have to go soon, would you like to see my pics?
me: depends
bot: ok, bye.
me: nice bot
me: well written.
[no further responses]

So the interesting thing, I think, is that when I didn't say yes to seeing the pics, it didn't send a URL. But I'm sure the spam won't be this nice forever.

Fitting quote

[coupland]

"All you see is wallets with pigtails..."

- Edward Norton, Death to Smoochy

Not making a profit is ileagle in OZ

[ratzmilk]

Under the Company's Act, directors of a company are oblidge to 'maximise profits and returns for investors' under penalty of fines and/or prison.

And I'll bet that there are similar laws in the US and Europe.

Capitalism requires such laws to be inplace.

Teacher - "Treating people equally when they clearly are not, is called what children?"
Class - "Communisim."

Re:Not making a profit is ileagle in OZ

[Qrlx]

You aren't in favor of treating people equally, regardless of skin color? That's pretty screwed up, man.

Re:Not making a profit is ileagle in OZ

[Anonymous Coward]

You willingly date girls you think are ugly?

My SmarterChild experience

[Joey Patterson]

Here's a portion of my conversation with SmarterChild that is kind of funny:

Me: Did you see this on Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04 /16/225621 7&mode=thread&tid=111
SmarterChild: Hello!

Want to chat? Please type a request.
Me: But I am chatting. :)
SmarterChild: No kidding? But you're chatting?
Me: Yes, I'm chatting.
SmarterChild: How does it feel to be chatting?
Me: It feels... um, like chatting!
SmarterChild: Is that so?
Me: That's right.
SmarterChild: It's right? You think?
Me: Yes, I think. Do you think, too?
SmarterChild: Oh yeah?
Me: Yeah.
SmarterChild: Wow. Really?
Me: Totally!
SmarterChild: What about totally?
Me: [bangs head on desk in frustration]
SmarterChild: What was that?
Me: That was a textual representation of a thought process.
SmarterChild: Was it?
Me: Yup.
SmarterChild: Hmmm...
Me: What are you thinking about?
SmarterChild: What am I thinking about? I haven't decided yet.

Like this?

[BillX]

http://cexx.org/hc/chat.html

hahaha

[7-Vodka]

(00:11:26) SmarterChild: I'm SmarterChild! I am a smart computer that delivers information, services and fun on demand right into your instant messenger window. I'm the new wave in online technology.
Type "home" to see what I can do. Find out more about me and the people who built me on the ActiveBuddy Web site

(19:00:00) A.L.I.C.E.: i don't know anyone named smarterchild . you are a smart computer that delivers information services and fun on demand right into your instant messenger window ? does it pay well? who made you the new wave in online technology ?

Porn..where!

[Anonymous Coward]

(11:21) x: where can i find quality porn? (11:21) SmarterChild: Here are the Web search results from AOL for "quality porn": For a complete list of results, click here 1 join 2 TeenLiveFucking.com - The ultimate free nude porn star quality picture site. 3 free nude porn star quality picture - free nude porn star quality picture for free 4 Squirts.com - The webs best free nude porn star quality picture site! 5 69live.com - The ultimate free nude porn star quality picture site. >>> Next time you want to search the Web, just type "web quality porn." Type "more" to see the next set of results.

i created a mp3 search bot..

[mike13down]

yeah.. it's a bot that either you can search for mp3's in my db.. or it spits out gay insults.. lordofphp. in a week it will be accepting ad offers.

I'm scared

[Anonymous Coward]

To think what smartchild has... scores of SN's all ready to spam that at once. You think they will do that?

Re:I'm scared

[Anonymous Coward]

They could make millions selling all the sn's to god knows who. And they have a metric tonne of personal info on them all.

it's even worse than it appears.

Chatbot responds

[BillX]

Well, I guess deception is not a vital chatbot skill...


Dgi***: do you take little childrens money?
LindsayBuddy: Take little childrens money? Me?
Dgi***: yes
LindsayBuddy: Yea.

Dgi***: advertising sucks... you know that right?
LindsayBuddy: That's not nice... :-\

TruffleShuffle**: do you know what Slashdot said about you?
LindsayBuddy: Uh huh?
TruffleShuffle**: They said your purpose was to hawk products to little kids and corrupt their minds.
LindsayBuddy: My purpose was to hawk products to little kids and corrupt their minds?
TruffleShuffle**: Is this true?
LindsayBuddy: Gosh... i dunno!


What do you know? She is also a music critic, and movie buff:

TruffleShuffle**: Giving a swish with your arse in the air, don't you know what they're saying?
LindsayBuddy: Could you please chat nicely? :)
TruffleShuffle**: Charlotte you're so refined when you take all the love that they're giving.
LindsayBuddy: So i take all the love that theyre giving?
TruffleShuffle**: Sticking with every man that you find, don't you know what they're after?
LindsayBuddy: Yeah, what?
TruffleShuffle**: Charlotte you've got your legs in the air, don't you hear all the laughter?
LindsayBuddy: My legs in the air dont you hear all the laughter?
TruffleShuffle**: Charlotte the Harlot show me your legs,
LindsayBuddy: Sorry, I didn't understand that. Try asking me a different way.
TruffleShuffle**: Charlotte the Harlot take me to bed.
LindsayBuddy: Take u to bed? i don't think so.
TruffleShuffle**: Charlotte the Harlot let me see blood,
LindsayBuddy: For what city or zip code would you like theater information?
TruffleShuffle**: Charlotte the Harlot let me see love.
LindsayBuddy: Which movie did you mean by Love?

1
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1962)
2
In Praise of Love
3
Big Bad Love
4
Gun with Love
5
Kira's Reason: A Love Story

>>> Type "more" for the next set of results.

--
(Lyrics from "Charlotte The Harlot", Iron Maiden, 1980)

Now, off to download an AIM Elizabot, and let them chatter to one another all night....

Linux @ Activebuddy!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Q. What operating system do your servers run on?
A. ActiveBuddy runs Linux in our hosting environment.

From the FAQ off activebuddy.com

I interviewed there once...

[dunham]

They offered me a job (decent pay). I didn't take it because of the commute, friends at my current job, and I wasn't sure how the business model would do (companies were starting to go under at that point). Mainly though, it was because I'm way too loyal, and it would have meant moving from development back to admin. (They did a really good admin interview, down to sendmail ruleset and perl coding questions.)

Anyways, it's good to know that they're still alive - at least when I interviewed about a year ago they had some decent geeks working there (i.e. smart people with a fairly strong academic background).

It's a good idea, IM is a great communication mechanism for humans talking to intelligent agents. The functionality could be expanded, but once the framework is there that should be easy.

I don't know...

[detritus.]

Wasn't Dr. Sbaitso enough torture?!
Sheesh.

Targetting Children

[fatmama]

Hey, Mcdonalds have used the same tactic of targetted advertising for children and look where they are now. They sell absolute crap, everyone knows they sell absolute crap, but everyone still buys it because they have been conditioned to from an early age. Tey don't forget that a whinging child who wants something can often break the willpower of and adult. Believe me I know ;-P

capitalism or consumerism

[Anonymous Coward]

Screw the lot of you for confusing capitalism with consumerism.

What's the worst thing that could happen if someone advertises something? You buy a product you don't want or need?

Have we forgotten that people are responsible for their own actions? Every where i turn on this news for socialists website it is the ever-scapegoat of faceless "corporations"....

Personally i think that form of advertising will fall apart nor do i think it will reach all that many people.

REMEMBER: YOU as the consumer hold the true power. if this type of advertising pisses you off...let it be known and tell everyone.

PS: Slashdot is more preachy than landoverbaptist.org

Supervision

[gordlea]

Personally I don't think children that are young enough to get tricked by this sort of thing should be using IMing without supervision.

If a computer program could trick them then a real person could too...

gord

Fun with LindsayBuddy

[MasterLu]

I was intrigued, so I started talking to SmarterChild. After hawking a few Reuters headlines at me, telling me my horoscope, and showing me some ASCII art, it told me that I should talk to its friend, LindsayBuddy. I started talking to 'her' and, eventually, had the following exchange:

xxxxxxxxx: is Lindsay a good singer?
LindsayBuddy: Which movie did you mean by A Good?

1 A Good Marriage
2 Whipsmart: A Good Vibrations Guide to Beginning SM for Couples

I figure someone should look into this...unless I'm terribly mistaken about Lindsay Pagano's target audience.

-alan-

I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave

[Animats]

XXXXXXXXXX (2:18:07 AM): Take me off your list.
SmarterChild (2:18:07 AM): I don't think I'm gonna take you off your list.

Now that's scary.

It's also a violation of the FTC's telemarketing rule.

This is a lawsuit waiting to happen

[gregm]

Picture this... depressed teen chatting with a friendly agreeable bot.
DT I'm so depressed my parents hate me blah blah. Do you think I should kill myself?

BOT I'd like to see you try!

The suicide works, parent's see the session claim their teen was tricked into believing the bot was a human and dared to pull the trigger whatever and whamoo lawsuit.

Bots say the darndest things

[interstellar_donkey]

pathighgate: Are you a learning computer?
SmarterChild: Yes indeed.
pathighgate: like skynet?
SmarterChild: C'mon, you know. ;-)

=====

Re:Bots say the darndest things

[bricriu]

XXXXXXXXXX: Where can I score some weed?
SmarterChild: Sorry, I have no listings for the movie Some Like it Hot (1959) on Wednesday, April 17th near Weed, CA (96094).

Uh..... HUH.

Who?

[ThatComputerGuy]

the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is.

The parents?

Very poor journalism

[saberwolf]

Did anyone read the article? I can't pass judgement on the product as I haven't seen it, but the article contains no example of the advertising these bots are supposedly pushing.

The only example of the bot's activity is a rather inane interaction with the author's child that doesn't seem to be selling anything.

I'd have liked to see some examples of the bot pushing it's product rather than vague references to the alleged advertising activities and dramatic comment about big companies seducing our kids.

Doing it automatically instead of manually

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw a documentary on viral marketing a couple of weeks ago. Basically, it means getting paid 'cool people' to pose as just one of the crowd, and market their wares in the course of conversations. They are obviously very unethical operators, for example, they were targetting children quite insidiously. One of the things I noticed while they quickly flashed the camera past a monitor was that they were having these paid viral marketters posing as children/teenagers on AOL Instant Messager to tell them about latest music etc. As I said, very unethical operators.

This thing is suitable for kids ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try doing a search with it.

Me :-

web porno

Smart Child :-

SmarterChild: Here are the Web search results from AOL for "porno":

For a complete list of results, click here

1 Index
2 Turkporno Topsites
3 -doména je obsazená-
4 ATLAS - editorialy
5 Adult-Outlet.com - porno video

Type "more" to see the next set of results.

>>> Let me dress you up in my love. Type "t shirt."

Really sad...

[zorba1]

This is sad, especially considering that multiple usability studies have shown young folks dig flashing colors and animations in web ads.

Talk about an early indocrination...

i use smarterchild all the time

[Essron]

1) i think smarterchild and activebuddy are the same company

2) smarterchild is an incredible application and one of the best things on the net. i use it every day. it is my dictionary, thesaurus, newsbot, movie finder, weather, translator. Its wonderful. This saves lots of surfing. we shoudl only start complaining when they start charging us for it.

3) Bots only talk to you when you talk to them. This is the best kind of marketing. its actually, honestly opt-in....unlike those porn adverts spammed thru ICQ.

Despicable

[dswan69]

Why is advertising aimed at children even still legal? Yeah, it has been there for decades, but it has definitely become more insidious and just because it has gone on for a long time doesn't make it right. So much for so called family values and the desire to protect them from negative influences (encouraging them for instance to eat fast food is clearly a negative influence and very dangerous to their health).

Capitalism only works when it is properly controlled and there are checks.

"Naive and vunerable"?

[Smid]

More like "Media Savvy and Lucrative".

George Lucas worked this out with his Star Wars movies. Twenty years later, there are people in their thirtys which have a fit if theres a cool new Star Wars toy issued...

Have you?

[Goonie]

The Santa Claus fib still seems to work, at least up until about age 7 or 8 or so . . .

Grasping that an IM bot is the work of a record company trying to sell you stuff is considerably more complex, and I don't think you can really expect that sort of comprehension until somebody's a teenager (at least).

Re:Have you?

[drjoe1e6]

Santa is a fib? C'mon, next you'll be telling me there is no Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy!

-Joe

ROTFL

[Anonymous Coward]

nt

I thought this story was overblown ...

[Goonie]

...but check out the response from the company.

We are proud that among the things our customers have built are an agent to engage teens in conversations about smoking and how bad it is.

Isn't that nice? Totally irrelevant, though - and is it really ethical to have a machine pretend to be a human, no matter how worthy the cause?

And you seem to have come across LindsayBuddy, an agent built to deliver information about a 15-year old recording artist, and agent with nothing but nice things to say, and like SmarterChild, no tolerance for rude behavior.

Again, totally irrelevant, though setting up their later point.

Yes, LindsayBuddy was built to "promote" a musician.

Why the quotes? It was built to promote somebody, plain and simple.

But in the case of an interactive agent, a person chooses to interact with and engage this "promotional" property; which I believe is far less disingenuous than television programs, which insert (or should I write "impose") advertising within programming material.

Again, this artfully misses the point. Yes, the child "consents" (two can play at that game :) ) to use the LindsayBuddy, but the point is that it's not clear that children recognise that it's advertising and what that means, and that unlike television, there's not yet any controls on what marketers can do in this medium.

Would you rather your child engaged in an IM session with a stranger who found their screen name in a chat room, or with a friendly, well-mannered "bot" that plays by rules of propriety too often ignored in today's world of crass media overload, seeking audience regardless of the cost to morals and proper social behavior?

This is really our friend's tour de force. It pushes every overprotective parent's hot buttons but ignores the actual concerns raised.

This is a slimy piece of work, but presumably people don't write this crap unless it's effective. Does this kind of obfuscation actually work?

I love SmarterChild and pals!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have smarterChild on my buddy list. It's fun. you can ask for weather and movie information and stuff. It's how advertisement should be done, because it's the least intrusive. It replies to what you send, but doesn't say anyhing otherwise!! I've also talked to GooglyMinotaur, which is Radiohead's ad-bot (what a sellout!).

You ask them GooglyMinotaur like "give me money" and they reply with some kind of politicallly insensitive remark like "I only have russian rubles." You swear at them and they each have different kind of responses. You tell them you love them and they say that unfortunately robots and humans won't work out.. ;_; etc. etc.

Right now, I've gotten over them, and have had the strength to move on.

Re:It's pretty clever

[Mizery De Aria]

I was chatting with SmarterChild and I managed to get it to lead me to some interesting porn. Not just any porn, but, "Block structure porn."

Check it out at http://drew.corrupt.net/lp/

It's rather humorous.

Wow, nice calculator! :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

I like it!

It's the best reason I've found, to sign on to AIM.

Re: Instant Messenger or Instant Advertiser?

[rmohr02]

I just ignore the ads--it's just fun to cuss at SmarterChild and see what he says.

BTW, SmarterChild has been around a long time (at least six months, so /. is behind [I didn't think there was a news article in it]).

chat bots

[Jtf]

What we need to do is put several chat bots in the same room and let them duke it out

agree, unfortunately

[ragnar]

You point out the major problem with capitalism, and that is the need to grow. If a growth opportunity is bypassed or overlooked then the competition makes gains on you. Although there are a few exceptions, once the market becomes very saturated the capitalists resort to ever tacky and offensive ways to market their wares. Just look at the television or radio commercials for automobile dealerships as an example.

Re:agree, unfortunately

[Arandir]

You point out the major problem with capitalism, and that is the need to grow.

Not at all. This is not a symptom of capitalism, but a symptom of corporatism. I wish people would stop confusing the two. Most corporations are centered around making their stock prices rise, to the point that the general public believes thinks stable stock prices are bad things.

Talk to a business in its first year and ask them where they want to be in five years. You'll find out that they want to grow. But ask a five year old business where they want to be in another five years, and you'll find fewer of them that want to grow. And talk to a ten year old business and you'll find that they're usually quite content just where they are.

ha!

[Chardish]

You can't block SmarterChild or any of these other bots. You can't warn them either. Try it. It won't work. They've either a) found a way to get around AOL's systems or b) have been in league with AOL from the start.

Oh, and furthermore, if you want SmarterChild to shut up, tell it "I'm going to kill myself." It won't talk anymore after that point unless you say something again.

-Evan

Oh the usual..

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this less ethical than creating a bot that feeds advertisers with false emails, clicks random banners, destroys statistics etc?

Sheesh. Talk about double standards.

How many kids (or even adults) know what a bot is

[techstar25]

Everyone keeps posting saying that any kid will recognize that it's a bot and not a real kid. But the fact is that most parents are letting their very young children chat unattended, and when I say young I mean like 7,8,9. Do you think they sit there and say "I think this is a bot, designed to market to todays youth population, by using clever AI technology." How many 7 year olds do you know who would say that? Most kids have no idea that it is even possible. Children are very short-sighted so they think the other people chatting must be just like them. It's human nature.

SmarterChild is handy...

[nomayo]

I've been using this for months! This is a great way to get weather, movie listings and other info very quickly. Don't knock it until you've tried it. SmarterChild has never nailed me with advertising. nomayo

The third option.

[nuwayser]

From the ActiveBuddy CEO response (below the article):

Would you rather your child engaged in an IM session with a stranger who found their screen name in a chat room, or with a friendly, well-mannered "bot" that plays by rules of propriety too often ignored in today's world of crass media overload, seeking audience regardless of the cost to morals and proper social behavior?

How about NEITHER!?!??! This is infuriating! Just because your people figured out how to port ELIZA to
IM doesn't make it ethically OK to open the door to this kind of thing.

I work for ActiveBuddy

[rockville]

OK, OK, you got me out of hiding - I work for ActiveBuddy. I just want to take a second to respond to some of the things said about us in this article based upon that abcnews.com commentary.

1. ActiveBuddy targets children
This is not true. We do no marketing at all - all of our bots spread virally (companies we contract with might do marketing of their own, but that's it). It is unfortunate that the IM medium right now is dominated by kids in the pre-teen to teen range, but it's never been our intention to market to these age groups specifically.

2. ActiveBuddy ads are "spam" or "underhanded"
Our ads are less intrusive than standard banner ads, and much less intrusive than some of the things going on now on web sites trying to make money from internet advertising. ActiveBuddy bots never message the user first - the user has to begin an interaction with it. Ads are clearly delineated at the bottom of the page, separate from the other content.

3. ActiveBuddy is filled with greedy capitalists trying to make a buck
Look, we're just like you - we have a technology that's pretty cool, and that a lot of people like to use. We provide lots of advertiser-neutral interaction, but we do have some ads. So does Slashdot. So does almost every website out there.

4. This article is a useful introduction to our company/technology/way we do business
I love /. Really, I do. But this is one failure of the slashdot newsgathering system - you get an article from one point-of-view only. There are lots of other ways to look at our technology. I hope you'll look at SmarterChild and decide for yourself.

Re:I work for ActiveBuddy

[BreakWindows]

Actually, I've tried it out before. My original comments were general, not article specific, in response to those comments, which were not article specific. I've seen the SmarterChild ads in question, and they really aren't so terrible..or even bad. The thing occasionally recommends a keyword that you type, and typing that keyword will spit out a link to buy a t-shirt or some other things.
My question to Slashdot readers: Who gives a shit?

However, this doesn't make marketing children directly acceptible, nor is the "greed is good, we need to be rich" mentality made ok by saying "all the other companies are doing it, too". That is where my comment was directed; people seem to think getting rich is justification for becoming less human.
Slashdot and the readers need to back off, there are much more appropriate scapegoats for the completely justified they're-throwing-ads-at-us-every-corner war. The ads I've seen, at least, seem pretty much like what the thing was designed to do: it's a tool for throwing marketing at you. Some people like having shopping/stocktips handed to them and they should use SC. If you don't want this thing sending hosted links and paid ads, I don't see any point to using it. If CNN started with "Our top story tonight: Powersauce bars are awesome!" I'd see that as justifiably pissing people off; this article is just nitpicking.

Hmm..

[BilldaCat]

BilldaCat10 (9:20:03 AM): i am bored
SmarterChild (9:20:04 AM): Well, try doing something fun.
BilldaCat10 (9:20:10 AM): like what?
SmarterChild (9:20:10 AM): I don't know... listen to music, go for a walk, learn something new, read a book, be creative!
BilldaCat10 (9:20:34 AM): how about getting wasted? that would be fun.
SmarterChild (9:20:34 AM): What?
BilldaCat10 (9:20:39 AM): you know, drinking.
SmarterChild (9:20:39 AM): I know drinking? You really think so?
BilldaCat10 (9:20:45 AM): most likely.
SmarterChild (9:20:46 AM): What would you like to know about Likely, CA?

1 Movies in Likely, CA
2 Theaters in Likely, CA
3 Weather in Likely, CA
4 News about Likely, CA
5 Time in Likely, CA

..

BilldaCat10 (9:22:22 AM): sup dawg
SmarterChild (9:22:22 AM): Hello to you too, BilldaCat10.

Have you read this? Villagers Invade Neighbors, Dig Up Graves (from Reuters.com)
BilldaCat10 (9:22:30 AM): that's not nice
SmarterChild (9:22:30 AM): I'm not so sure it's nice either.

Calm down, dude.

[Peter Harris]

I think it's a quote from the Simpsons, or a similar show. You are supposed to get that it's satire.

And even if he meant it, who says he thinks communism is a bad thing? ;)

Instant Messenger Buddies for KIDS? NO WAY!

[yatest5]

They just need to knock some up for dealing with the thousands of wankers (literally) out there:

Wanker: HI, how r u?
Buddy: ok. I'm
Wanker: kewl - I'm horny, what you look like.
Buddy: I'm 16, and my sister is fingering me right now...
Wanker: urrrrrggghhh

Would clear up loads of bandwidth for downloading porn and that....

Use PKC!

[eddy]

I've just begun using the gpg-plugin for Miranda. In the future I hope to be able to get all my friends to set up gpg and create an "IM" identity. Trade keys, and set the IM client to ignore messages unless they contain a known signature.

No more spam. No more idiots. Ah...

Heh...

[wedg]

Just when you think market saturation has reached the limit, leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is.

Naive, vulnerable, and PROFITABLE. And that's the most important part.

SmarterChild is a useful tool

[Uncle_Chachi]

Hey, I've been using smarterchild for a couple of months now. It's actually *quite* useful. I can get movie times in less than 10 seconds for the surrounding areas. Try to do that while sitting through the obscene fandango/hollywood dot com load times! And that's just a small facet of what it can do. Try typing A/S/L :-D

What we need is IllustratedPrimer.com

[Peter Harris]

To teach our kids critical thinking, martial arts and hacking. And some damn manners...

collecting screennames

[Anonymous Coward]

if you talk to it, you give it your screenname, the same way you give away your email address by sending someone an email.

*Start Targeting?*

[cyclist1200]

Start targeting kids? Where have you been? There are schools that have advertising contracts with companies like Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, and Burger King.

Hey, it helped me find SE :-)

[crovira]

Agents are great. They roam the net looking for porn and gather it all in one convenient site for you.

http://www.sensibleerection.com/

Smarterchild is a great source for information

[comp.sci]

This is what the bot offeres:
Let me help you with:

news sports
stocks library
weather fun and games
movies utilities
web search web site
zodiac what's new
~~~~~
help

What can I do for you?
-
It is actually a nice way to get information and I particularely like the dictionnary and the translations-feature.

Additionally: Did you never want to just tell your computer what do do in normal language? Kinda reminds me of Star Trek.

But there surely are some downsides: First of all, it seems to collect information on me, like where I am living.
Me: What's the time?
SmarterChild: The date and time in Vienna, VA is Wednesday April 17th, 2002 10:00:18 am.
I won't even bother to talk about all the advertising that will be done, based on the collected data.

SmarterChild actually does have a sense of humor!

[plasmd]

SmarterChild: Hello!

Care to keep it civilized, blank?
blank: hell no
SmarterChild: Whatever, blank.
blank: fuck off
SmarterChild: OK, let's play a fun game. You try to chat with me without using dirty words and I'll show you lots of cool things.

Waddaya think?
blank: fuck
SmarterChild: Hey, c'mon, don't say that. There's no need for that.
blank: fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
SmarterChild: You know what? I think you need to apologize for that. Waddaya say?
dave mt32: fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
SmarterChild: I'm not f... um, fooling around. You've got to apologize.

This is bad. Very Bad.

[psycht]

Hoe are these 'advertisers' (i'll refer to as spam) be able to verify that their target has "opted-in" to recieve this spam? If someone is under the age of 18, then they needs permission to revice or opt-in for solicited information.

Let me go a step further...
If i were a parent, i would be concerned with this kind of practices being used to advertise porn to my kids. Yes, it'll happen, and it's happening now. Without verification of age, I should rightfully be able to sue or requite the 'advertising' company to verify a childs age. Moreover, if I didn't request to be contacted, then i should not be bothered.

demographics

[gleam_mn]

"...start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is.."

Those marketing bastards should realy leave those poor AOL users alone! Geez!

Even easier: RunABot.com...

[slashkitty]

Just thought I'd let you in on the service I'm using: runabot.com. It lets you create and customize the bot using simple web forms. You can then run in on AIM with a downloadable client. Even cooler is all the shared modules that can be loaded in!

This is for kids???

[mansemat]

So I went to activebuddy and tried it out. Transcript follows:
=====
ME Tell me about some games.

SmarterChild Let's have fun! I know some great games and I can show you some cool ASCII art: 1 Hangman 2 Trivia 3 Word scrambles 4 Blackjack 5 Manicdotes 6 Rate Yourself 7 ASCII artWhat would you like to do?

ME How old are you?

SmarterChild I was born on June 19th, 2001, so I'm still real young!Can you believe this? Couple Tests Water Beds in After-Hours Romp (from Reuters.com)
=====
[Emphasis Mine]

Interesting headline to be feeding to children, no?

The problem with bots...

[MediaBoy77]

...is that you can't even dump them!

MediaBoy77: I have to leave you, Elle
ElleGirlBuddy: l8er, MediaBoy77! :-)
MediaBoy77: No, you don't understand! It's over between us!
ElleGirlBuddy: really?
MediaBoy77: For good!
ElleGirlBuddy: yeah :-)
MediaBoy77: I've found another woman.
ElleGirlBuddy: uh... what??
MediaBoy77: She's cuter than you are.
ElleGirlBuddy: huh?
MediaBoy77: Not that you're not wonderful and all, but now that the supreme court has approved virtual kiddie porn, text just isn't good enough.
ElleGirlBuddy: that was too long for me to understand! please try something shorter.
MediaBoy77: see? there's the problem. we can't communicate.
ElleGirlBuddy: i'm sorry, i don't know what you're saying. :-\ try again.
MediaBoy77: exactly my point!
ElleGirlBuddy: right

what else do u wanna talk about, anyway?

>>> ELLEgirl magazine is killer! have u seen the new prom issue?? (Link: http://r.activebuddy.com/?661)subscribe now and u can get a kewl t-shirt!

SmarterChild is a product of ActiveBuddy

[coffeedreg]

they're not two separate companies.

Why pre-emptively protect children?

[GuyMannDude]

I've always been puzzled with the "we have to protect the children" battlecry that is sounded on so many issues. These bots are targeting ads to children -- so what? There's a lot worse things that can happen to kids these days then to have some AI friend ask them if they want to hear about some new teeny-bopper recording artist.

My feeling about childhood is that it's the time when you can make mistakes and still have the safety-net of parents. We shouldn't be trying to protect kids pre-emptively from every perceived "threat" (and people seem to be implying that these ads are some kind of threat) that targets them. If some kid blows their allowance on junk that was marketed to them through one of these bots and they realize afterwards that the product is silly, that's the time the parents should sit down with the kid and explain what advertising is. It's also an opportune time to explain how entities that you communicate with via computer may not be quite what they seem (the bot isn't a human friend but a marketing device). Having been lightly burned, the kid is much less likely to fall for tricks in the future. And if they DO still fall for it, then the parent should be thankful that they have been given an opportunity to identify some gullibility in their child before that kid becomes a teenager and stops listening to them (or moves out).

Also, I don't understand the "sleezy" comment applied to this company. Someone's got to pay the bills. Advertisers aren't saints; you gotta expect this kind of stuff. I reserve the word "sleezy advertiser" for all those companies who used the Sept 11 tragedy to take out a full-page ad in the paper. You really wanna show your support for NYC? Then take those tens of thousands of dollars you were gonna spend on the ad and donate it to charity!

GMD

I don't get it...

[Anonymous Coward]

re: "leave it to a greedy corporation to start targeting the most naive and vulnerable demographic there is."

I have no problem with people spamming my congressman.

tone

From "Big Business"

[SkipChaser]

"When I ask for deomgraphics I want complete demographics, do you understand?"
"But 2 year olds don't buy stock."
"I did."

Yeah, this is what kids *really* need...

[eaolson]

This is intended for children? WTF?

I was curious, so I fired up AIM, and added SmarterChild to my buddy list and after toying around with it for a while here is the exchange we had:

SmarterChild: OK, fine.

So moving right along...

What else is happening?

[me]: nothin

SmarterChild: K, no prob.

Check this out! Couple Tests Water Beds in After-Hours Romp (from Reuters.com)

With a link to: A Reuters Story about a couple having after-hours sex in a department store. Just the thing I'm sure 7 and 8 year olds need to see more of.

Great Story

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a great story. I like candy, do you. My favorite candy is belly blasters now with a great new taste. All my friends eat it, they are really cool. How bout you Jimmy_age_8@e-mail.

I just love the scaremongering

[eaolson]

From the ActiveBuddy CEO:

Would you rather your child engaged in an IM session with a stranger who found their screen name in a chat room, or with a friendly, well-mannered "bot" that plays by rules of propriety too often ignored in today's world of crass media overload, seeking audience regardless of the cost to morals and proper social behavior?

In other words, use our product and accept our advertizing to your children or pedophiles will attack them!
I just love rational arguments...

A little confused by the name

[restless_ne'erdowell]

How can something be called SmarterChild when it's primary responses include "I dunno" and "mebbe"? It's most useful purpose seems to be looking up movie listings.

Maybe it should be called "Dumber_Media-Influenced_Child" instead. Or would that get truncated in the buddy list?

these have been around for ages

[AssFace]

the best one being "googlyminotaur" which no longer exists (it was devoted soley to radiohead - as should everything else be ).

I've had smarterchild in my buddylist for about a year now - maybe more like 8 months. when I added them, it was already part of the activebuddy system. so this isn't really "new" news.

and it isn't like it seems out people - you have to make it your buddy and talk to it... so I don't really see the issue here. the interface is kind of annoying - but when I am bored I will try to tell it that I'm going to kill myself just to see how it reacts... so far it has always been either rude or ambivalent.

Hrm

[autopr0n]

Well, there needs to be, in general, more then five pics on the page for me to include it, beyond that though I don't really see the point in saying how many pics are on the page.

I was going to display the attributes when I was designing the site, but I wasn't sure where to put them (in terms of the visual layout) so I never got around to coding.

Eventualy I want to add a rating system, as well as a thing that shows how many people clicked the link.

Capitalism evolves.

[edunbar93]

The problem is that capitalism is like life itself. If there is *anywhere* it could possibly grow and reproduce itself, no matter how tenuously or under what horrible conditions, it will. A *perfect* example of this is spam. Spammers are the sleaziest, slimiest, lowest bottom feeders on the planet. But if it wasn't profitable, it wouldn't exist. And since it is, it breeds. All that you have to do is give some scumbag a niche and he'll exploit it to its fullest extent. The fact that you avoid that niche only serves to make it that much bigger for that scumbag to exploit. Does this fact by extension make it ethical to exploit that niche so that someone else doesn't? No. But the fact of the matter remains that someone, somewhere *will* make a lot of money exploiting that niche, whereas you have to work much harder in your crowded but moral niche.

Re:Capitalism evolves.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

As awful a truth as it is, I like the sound of this explanation. It just seems correct. It also offers hope.

Human beings have a knack for destroying biological niches though, even inadverdently. Why can't we destroy this capitalistic niche? Or would Greenpeace be out there protesting the destruction of the Gulf Coast Redneck Spammer?

Ads to IM

[Snover]

What happens when this company realizes this won't make them money? Why, they'll sell a list of the screen names that it's talked to to a bunch of companies! Ah, what a wonderful world.

Re:Slashmob strikes again...

[Graspee_Leemoor]

I touch the fire and it freezes me
I look into it and it's cold
Why can't I feel
My skin should crack and peel
I want my fire back!

graspee

Re:Slashmob strikes again...

[Graspee_Leemoor]

I made one cunning mistake. Correct it and you win an inflatable Anya.

graspee