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Is Your IM Buddy Really a Computer?

audiovideodisco writes "Every year the Loebner Prize goes to the chatbot (and the corresponding human companion) that fares best on a Turing test administered by a panel of judges. Discover talked to Kevin Warwick, the professor who runs the competition, to get pointers on how one would go about detecting a bot. While there are some general approaches you can use, nothing is foolproof — and asking about Sarah Palin can be downright deceptive. One judge concluded an interlocutor was a bot because it didn't recognize Palin's name ... but it turned out the chatter was a French librarian who'd simply never heard of her." The chat transcripts show how difficult picking bot from non-bot is getting.

36 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Palin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the reply back about Sarah Palin is "She's great and would be the best person to be our next president!" you are talking to a computer.

    1. Re:Palin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      i think the bigger reason is that you still live in your parents basement

    2. Re:Palin? by ari+wins · · Score: 2, Funny

      More specifically, you're probably talking to a unhackable Diebold machine.

      --
      Don't worry if you're a kleptomaniac, you can always take something for it.
    3. Re:Palin? by ben0207 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have a wetsuit and a laptop with WiFi. I accept your challenge.

      --
      cmd-q.co.uk - some sort of stupid fucking internet bullshit
  2. re Never heard of Palin? by jelizondo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll be damn! I'd never thought there would be advantages to being a frenchman!

    --
    Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
    1. Re:re Never heard of Palin? by Mishotaki · · Score: 2, Funny

      You consider yourself to be a frenchmen?

      Here i was, thinking that Quebeckers would be the last to be insulted by such a joke... but making a post with only an insult in Quebecker isn't gonna help you in any way, it's making us look like rude people...

  3. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our new chatbot overlords.

    I'm totally not one of them, you can trust me.

    1. Re:Obligatory by ushering05401 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I for one welcome our new chatbot overlords.

      I'm totally not one of them, you can trust me.

      A bot would be a nice change from the usual... http://www.yardwear.net/blog/content/binary/t-shirt_10.jpg

  4. Re:Obama Policies Will Bankrupt USA Tsarkon Report by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clearly a bot, he continuously posts the same repetitive drivel.

  5. Re:Or is your computer really an IM Buddy? by corsec67 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ya i no wat u mean som ppl jst cant be bothered to spll or pnctuate

    --
    If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
  6. Not necessarily by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 1, Funny

    It could also be that you're just talking to a fucking moron.

    1. Re:Not necessarily by ChatHuant · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, there's a huge problem with the Turing Test, which is that you have to distinguish between a computer and a person drawn from the pool of humans intelligent and aware enough to have learned to speak and use a keyboard.

      Unfortunately, as YouTube (and even /.) comments demonstrate, there is no lower limit to the intellectual capacity of a person who is still capable of speaking and using a keyboard.

      It isn't a problem at all: the Turing test is not supposed to demonstrate that the machine is a rocket scientist. The test succeeds if the person conducting it can't reliably distinguish between the machine and the human. Just find human subjects whose intelligence is comparable to the machine being tested. For example, running it on the typical Slashbot, you can successfully prove the intelligence of toasters.

    2. Re:Not necessarily by cerberusss · · Score: 2, Funny

      A person can, for a substantial period of time, be tricked by a 'flirty' bot that comes across as a cute, dumb female. It's kind of funny to see a (sub-average intelligence, I'd guess) person hold a running dialog/virtual relationship for several months with a bot.

      Anything to boost my ego. I've personally set up six bots which I have a long-distance relationship with. I go home after work to my (real life) girlfriend and I sit there listening to her complaints but still feeling smug.

      It's the only way to deal with it, besides nuking her from orbit.

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    3. Re:Not necessarily by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Funny
      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  7. Re:even bots apparently can't spell by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

    no u

  8. Now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time by halcyon1234 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Forget trying to discover who is the bot. I like to pretend I am a bot pretending to be a human. I see how long I can convince someone I've escaped from Google and I'm hiding in the Microsoft Network, where Google cannot go. Then I ask them "But how does 'ur a fukin idiot' make you feel?"

  9. Re:Change we can believe in. by Slumdog · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've been a bot for years.

    I used to chat with bots of Quake3Arena.
    Its fun, you never know what they'll say before launching a rocket in your direction.

  10. Re:Anyone for a General AI prize? by lymond01 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Matt Mahoney to Hutter show details 9:33 AM (7 hours ago) [google.com]

    I have uploaded a mirror of Alexander Ratushnyak's new submission to the Hutter prize [hutter1.net] to http://cs.fit.edu/~mmahoney/compression/text.html#1323 [fit.edu] It is in the paq8hp12 section. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of versions just above the table. The submission is decomp8.zip which contains 2 files, decomp8.exe and archive8.bin, the decompressor and compressed file. There is no compressor. To decompress:

    decomp8 archive8.bin enwik8

    The direct link is http://cs.fit.edu/~mmahoney/compression/decomp8.zip [fit.edu] Decompression took about 2 hours on my computer and used a little over 924 MB memory. The total size of the 2 files is 15,986,677 which passes the 3% threshold improvement from his previous submission of 16,481,655 bytes on May 14, 2007.

    The submission was Mar. 23. The 30 day comment period before awarding the prize ends Apr. 22, 2009.

    That's exactly what a bot would say.

  11. Slash-bots? by geobeck · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder how many Slashdotters are actually bots, and how you would find us out...

    Oops, I mean--ack--
    +++out of cheese error+++
    +++please reinstall universe+++
    +++redo from start+++

    --
    Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    1. Re:Slash-bots? by gbarules2999 · · Score: 2, Funny

      kdawson

  12. David Caruso by GoodNicksAreTaken · · Score: 4, Funny

    couldn't pass and would try and turn it around on the judges. "I suspect... *dramatically removes sunglasses that he's been wearing indoors for no particular reason other than to remove them dramatically*... that you sir... are the one that is a machine"

    1. Re:David Caruso by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hate you. This is going to ruin some moderating but I just had to tell you that I, not being a regular TV watcher, googled the name and got this youtube clip.

  13. Re:Interlocutors by Thinboy00 · · Score: 4, Funny

    On a tangential note the interlocutors I hate the most are the pre-programmed phone systems the telco sets up to "help" you. You know, the ones that say "I'm sorry, I didn't understand the question" when you tell them for the hundredth time "my DSL keeps randomly disconnecting."

    At least they're ten times better than the outsourced-to-India tech support.

    --
    $ make available
  14. Re:Want to see some really clever bots in action? by NevarMore · · Score: 5, Funny

    An AC, talking about personal ads, sexy webcams and borderline credit card fraud posts 3 IM handles on Slashdot and asks if we want to see them in action?

    No thank you. I got into enough trouble randomly clicking on that blacklist that got posted on Wikileaks.

  15. Re:Want to see some really clever bots in action? by c6gunner · · Score: 4, Funny

    Want to see one in action?

    MSN: livewirex23@live.com

    WHAT?? NOOOO! I've wasted SO MUCH TIME!!!

  16. Re:Change we can believe in. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's nothing - I've been sleeping with a bot for 22 years.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  17. people argue with computer daemons all the time by speculatrix · · Score: 4, Funny

    long ago I worked at an ISP which offered UUCP accounts, and the mail failure message was very polite and apologetic, and sometimes people would email back to the uucp daemon thanking it for trying

    only the other day my wife, on receiving a "sorry, I have been unable to send this email for X days" from the exim (MTA) daemon replied to it telling it not to bother any more!

    FX: facepalm!

  18. Turing Test won with artificial stupidity by David+Gerard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Artificial intelligence came a step closer this weekend when a computer came within five percent of passing the Turing Test, which the computer passes if people cannot tell between the computer and a human.

    The winning conversation was with competitor LOLBOT:

    "Good morning."
    "STFU N00B"
    "Er, what?"
    "U R SO GAY LOLOLOLOL"
    "Do you talk like this to everyone?"
    "NO U"
    "Sod this, I'm off for a pint."
    "IT'S OVER 9000!!"
    ...
    "Fag."

    The human tester said he couldn't believe a computer could be so mind-numbingly stupid.

    LOLBOT has since been released into the wild to post random abuse, hentai manga and titty shots to 4chan, after having been banned from YouTube for commenting in a perspicacious and on-topic manner.

    LOLBOT was also preemptively banned from editing Wikipedia. "We don't consider this sort of thing a suitable use of the encyclopedia," sniffed administrator WikiFiddler451, who said it had nothing to do with his having been one of the human test subjects picked as a computer.

    "This is a marvellous achievement, and shows great progress toward goals I've worked for all my life," said Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, confirming his status as a system failing the Turing test.

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
  19. Re:I have a way of dealing with this, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    screwing with the bot

    Ewwwwww!!!

  20. Re:I have a way of dealing with this, by Omniscient+Lurker · · Score: 3, Funny

    I need more information. Does sally have amnesia? What sort of time frame is this absence from the room, did Bob tell her he'd take the marble back out? ... Is Sally typically a distrustful person? Has Bob done this before??? I need more information.

  21. Re:Palin? Tsarkon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Did you ever read the post I was responding to?

    Welcome to Slashdot, bitch.

  22. Re:Change we can believe in. by Hordeking · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's nothing - I've been sleeping with a bot for 22 years.

    Your hand is not cybernetic! Now, write that on the blackboard 500 times.

    --
    Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
  23. Re:Philosophical by Cathbard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your TV/DVR could find shows that you would like but didn't know to ask for

    That's what TiVo is supposed to do but somehow it thinks all you want to watch is crap.

    --
    "A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist" - Sir Humphrey Appleby
  24. Re:Foolproof by Thanshin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can you type this backwards, read it, and tell me the result, please? 'net sulp neetfif'

    Yes. Yes I can.

    How does that make you feel?

    Tell me more about yourself.

  25. Turing is for wimps by Cyanara · · Score: 3, Funny

    The real test is convincing your friends that you're actually a bot. I was once lanning Counterstrike with some mates, using a dodgy 3rd party utility to provide bots. These bots had some pretty amusing chatter, and after a while I decided to change my name to one similar to the bots. I pretended my name wasn't showing up due to a bug (which wasn't hard to believe with this program), and then started dropping increasingly more personal messages directed at my mates. Had them quite freaked out until I couldn't stop myself laughing any more.

  26. Re:Want to see some really clever bots in action? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're supposed to be administering a Turing Test, not a Voight-Kampff Test.

    --
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