@ Dave - Nicely put!
William, Welcome!
I think you might be searching for one of several bots that can learn by retaining previously chatted or fed information.
Some allow the user to “feed” information from a text file or other suitable file. The bot will go through this file and keep certain prescribed types of data. During later conversations it might use or draw upon some of this “learned” material.
Of course, it needs to be able to match the appropriate response for the given input in order to extract and present some of its newly learned data on the fly. The overall effect is quite nice when it works but it is still sort of a step or two higher than the standard pattern matching bots.
Again my question would be, do you want your bot to know everything like Watson or just to be able to carry on a decently smooth, topical conversation? I’d go for the latter but that’s just me.
Good luck in your search!