'Chatbot' king George looks for human friends on the internet

Breit ^ | 9/15/06 | AFP

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Fascinating.

This via Drudge.

[stevio]

Short circuit his software by sending him over to DU.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Doesn't work. I've tried it with Mozilla and ie.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

see and converse with King George here

NOTE: The site is currently overloaded and is running like molasses.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

I believe is operates with shockwave.

The site is overloaded.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Keep trying if you can; I also had some delay in accessing the site through IE.

[Ex-Dem]

The chatbot site seemed extremely slow and unresponsive (I kept timing out). But from the looks of it, it seems like just another ELIZA inspired Turing Test chatbot. I've seen some of the example conversations and it still needs work.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Fun ping!

[RobFromGa]

Maybe some of the single-issue posters on FreeRepublic are electronic posters-- they often sound like machines.

[reagan_fanatic]

George appears on the website www.jabberwacky.com and takes the form of a thin, bald man with yellow glasses who wears a white turtleneck sweater

James Carville??!

[Donna Lee Nardo]

You are probably right. But nonetheless, it is interesting.

It is also difficult to completely assess with the slowness of the site at the moment. This is unsurprising after the PR blitz.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

You are too funny! Thanks for the mid-morning laugh.

I think too many of our politicians -- I will deliberately use that term since there are few if no statesmen left -- are electronic bots and vacuous bots at that.

[Truth29]

Maybe it needs to evolve to the next level: Colossus the Forbin Project.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Here is my interchange with King George:

George: I am not George Bush.

Me: Too bad cause I love GWB. You ARE NO George Bush.

George: That is true.

[Ex-Dem]

*shudder*

It's probably just as well that this George chatbot thing isn't too bright yet...

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

the furbys are coming....they have already taken over Washington, DC

[ShadowAce]

[Egon]

Maybe some of the single-issue posters on FreeRepublic are electronic posters-- they often sound like machines.

I resent that, [ROBFROMGA].

[RobFromGa]

Would you like to play a game?

[thulldud]

Is George the pioneer of a generation of avatars to be used by childrens' teachers? Carpenter thinks so, insisting "the interactive process is the best means of learning".

This is confusing the process with the power that drives it. Real learning happens when the teacher, out of his interest in and regard for the learner, shares his passion for knowledge with that learner, and the learner responds by picking up that passion. It's not at all a process of transmitting "facts", it's a labor of love on both sides.

Show me a machine that can love, and I'll show you one that can substitute for a teacher.

(What am I saying? Most "real" teachers today aren't even capable of this! But, then, I think that is more a failure of the system, less so of the individuals in it.)