hi my name is dan and I would like some help to make a chatbot
I dont really konw very much about how make one but I am really ken too.

i’d like to make a chatbot that I can teach by talking to it and have it abell to remember every thing I say about diffrent things / topics and have it abell to speck back with a natrual sounding voice but I dont konw where to start and is it posabile to make a chatbot that can use a webcam so you can teach it about daffrent things and what thay are. if it is how can I do this ?

thanks for any help you can give me

Hi, Dan, and welcome.

Where to start… Hmmm. Ok, first off, nothing I’m about to say is intended to hurt your feelings, or make you upset or angry. These are simply statements of fact, intended to give you an idea of the scope of what you are asking.

The main requirements for creating any sort of chatbot vary, depending on whether you want to start out “from scratch”, or whether you’re willing to begin with a simple, pre—packaged bot that’s hosted on a remote server, and then work your way up to a more complex bot that includes Text To Speech (TTS), and some sort of animated avatar that makes the bot seem more “alive” to the user. As far as integrating a camera of some sort, to allow your bot to “visually learn”, and recognize people and objects, that’s getting into the realm of what major universities teach to their doctorate level students in their final years, so while it’s certainly possible, it’s more or less beyond the skillsets of your average AI enthusiasts that you’ll find on this forum.

If you wish to create a simple chatbot to start, and use it to learn the needed skills to make the bot more complex as time goes on, there are several chatbot hosting services available (both free and paid) that can serve as a starting point. Two that I would recommend looking into are pandorabots and personality forge. Both platforms have had bots that have earned high marks in several chatbot competitions, so you can be sure that the platforms themselves are of good quality.

If, however, you want to “start from scratch”, then the following skills are absolutely essential:
[ol]
[li]advanced to expert level skill in a programming/scripting language (e.g. C, PERL, PHP VB, etc.)[/li]
[li]intermediate to expert skill in database programming/management (access, SQL, oracle, etc.)[/li]
[li]a firm grasp of spelling and grammar[/li]
[/ol]

Without the above listed skills, you face a nearly insurmountable challenge. As I said, I’m not trying to insult or upset you, and I certainly don’t want you to think that it’s not possible for you to do this. I don’t know your background, or your level of passion for the subject, nor do I know your aptitudes for learning the requisite skills. I can only go by a short paragraph of information that you’ve posted.

So, you tell us. What skills do you have? What are you willing to put time and effort into, that will help you attain the goal you’ve outlined? I, personally, am willing to go to great lengths to assist you, but only if you’re willing to put in as much time as I will. The old saying goes: “God helps those who help themselves”, and I firmly believe that.

Thanks Dave for writing ‘from scratch’. That reminded me of this thread:

http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/116/

‘writing a chatbot from scratch’

Why don’t you try Inf.net as well?

Wow, I checked it out, Great site !

Thank you, Victor! I’m glad you liked it.

If I recall correctly, One of the infs (Captain Jack Sparrow) was a high placing competitor in the 2010 Chatterbot Challenge. This bodes well for inf.net, as well.

And hello, Pavel, and welcome to the forums!

I would say what you’re asking for, Dan, is not currently possible, at least not for an amateur developer. Even if it were, the range of functionality that you’re after is more than a one-man job. Join CSAIL or SAIL if you want to get your hands on the latest and greatest in visual processing software. (Or, er, probably a DOD funded national lab.) And at any rate, it sounds like you are more interested in training such a bot than developing it.

I would recommend working with a developed chatbot project such as those listed above. Or with someone on this site who is interested in having someone put their bot through its paces.

If the visual aspect of AI is the most appealing for you, you might like this CSAIL project: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/127 It’s called “Label Me” and it’s a tool designed to tag images that a bot can then train with to improve its object recognition.

Just reread my post. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic about developing a bot from scratch. Certainly if you narrowed your focus some (at least in the beginning) you could develop your own project. But I echo Dave’s comment about the amount of time and skill required (especially about being proficient in some programming language and in grammar and spelling). What is your technical background? That might provide a guide as to what type of chatbot project to take on.

Hello Dave! Thank you.
Yes, your’re right, Captain Jack was one of the competitors. There were some other infs as well, but they didn’t get any prizes.

Well, if things go well on my end you can expect some VERY stiff competition next year. By then, Morti should be ready to enter, and I’m expecting him to do well.

Yes, Morti is great. But some of our users are working hard on teaching their infs too

C R Hunt - Sep 8, 2010:

If the visual aspect of AI is the most appealing for you, you might like this CSAIL project: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/127 It’s called “Label Me” and it’s a tool designed to tag images that a bot can then train with to improve its object recognition.

Thanks CR !!!!! This REALLY makes me enthusiast. I’ve written a new post on this topic:
http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/214/

curious what your thoughts are!!

Erwin