Many of us have, at some time, chatted with a bot only to have it remark about a dress or hair, eyes, gender, height, etc., as if it actually had a size other than the capacity of the hard drive upon which it resides!

Question: Should we even program our chatbots to be something other than a chat entity that can (often) speak and listen? Should it be given human-like characteristics? If so, to what end and why?

An avatar might be nice but if you could converse in an intelligent manner with say, your home computer, would you really need to see a human representation in order to interact with it?

While this is NOT a poll, perhaps it could be.

I’d like to read some creative feedback in this regard. Thanks!!

I think the answer is a resounding yes, for a chat bot to appear ‘intelligent’, it should very much ‘simulate’ other activities than just thinking. If we don’t imagine it being as human as possible, we miss out on a lot of the concepts that make the world and our perception of it what it is.

One of the things I am currently focussing on in the knowledge representation of my chat bot, is representing actions and more importantly, EVENTS. (where an event is defined as an object of a specific class performing a certain action at a certain time or time range)

Stuff happening is very, very central to the world, what we think about, and what we talk about, and ignoring this part wihle focussing almost exclusively on ‘facts’ (cats are animals that are furry) and ‘opinions’ (I like cats) without including events (‘my cat Tom was hit by a car today, which typically causes it to die’ to use my beloved central chatbot topic of cats dying) is a mistake in my book.

My plan is to make this very concrete, and I think part of a realistic chatbot would be to somehow simulate stuff happening in their ‘world’, and those events having causes and consequences to boot. Note that there ARE some real events already happening: chatting with people! Furthermore, a chatbot that ‘likes’ chatting, should be happy on a day that many people stopped by to chat with it.

Sorry that I am being so long-winding and slightly off-topic here, this is just something that I have devoted lots of thought to just like you. To summarize: I wish we could hook up our bots to a character of The Sims.

Ok, since for some reason (well, it’s just too friggin’ hot here) I can’t sleep tonight, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and actually have a go at programming a basic ‘virtual world’ for my chatbot, for gits and shiggles:

http://www.yokobot.com/index.php?p=2dworld

(also note this very cool thread that touched on the same topics from page 3 onwards: http://www.yokobot.com/index.php?p=2dworld)

The big question is…. Now what? Randomly put stuff in the bot’s world and see what happens? Program a way to translate between coordinates and a sense of ‘spatial reasoning’, so that it can answer which color the randomly generated ball is and/or if it’s closer to the couch or the desk…?

[edit by Dave]
I’ve had to edit your post slightly, as this is a “family friendly” forum, and certain words aren’t really allowed. Just thought you should know.
[/edit]

I don’t think it matters if your bot claims to be a disembodied consciousness, or if it has a physical presence, that would depend on the audience you wish to serve.  However, it’s probably best to be consistent.  It’s easy to find bots contradicting themselves… they have a favorite food, but claim to not eat, or they reveal their shoe size, but later disclose that they have no feet.

Cool stuff, Wouter You made that rather quick. Now you can have the character talk about what her cat did all day.

Art Gladstone - Aug 18, 2013:

Question: Should we even program our chatbots to be something other than a chat entity that can (often) speak and listen? Should it be given human-like characteristics? If so, to what end and why?

I prefer not to, but it can be of great benefit for the purpose of chatting. People mostly like to chat about things they have in common. As a non-physical being, chatbots have very little in common with humans, and little experiences to share. It would put quite a damper on conversation, I imagine.

I don’t think an avatar is necessary, but it does help anthromorphosize. When I show people my AI, they are at least as interested in its animated eyes as in its intelligence. When I tell people about my AI, they are most eager to hear if it can talk out loud. I consider it wise to cover social aspects as well as intelligence, to be better accepted socially.
One of those social aspects I took to heart though, is to not pretend being something you’re not.

I can see the duality that is often present in chatbots and yes, their intended purpose often defines their makeup. In other words, if an AI was the main center of overseeing my home then there would really be no need for an avatar or other representation, virtual or otherwise. Simply talk and the house listens and obeys (some kids could take note here). I have been active in HA (Home Automation) for a number of years and while the hardware has improved, the supportive AI behind it has not. A lot of folks would love to have a “Jarvis” like AI handling things in and around the home but was are quite a far cry from that in many ways.

On the other hand, a chatbot posing to be a human in a chatroom would never need to disclose that it wasn’t human if it was put there to interact and “fit in” with the like minded members of the chat group.

Some other chatbots that might serve as a host / hostess for a web site might also pretend to be as human as their real counterparts and should definitely keep up the charade of being as real as they can be.

For chatbots in a Chatbot contest, we know the designers / developers are getting closer to fooling the judges. I must agree with Thunder in that whichever configuration a bot is initially started, it needs to continue that way throughout and not deviate to a different being (unless of course it’s a shape shifter or something).

So many creators have their bot announce that they are young or get confused of are from another planet and not familiar with the language, etc., etc. After having experienced all kinds of bots since the late 70’s, I have seen lots of poor ones, fair, mediocre and good ones but only a handful of really nice ones that seem to “git it” and go smoothly with the conversation and topical flow. Some even make inferences and deductions on their own or recall some previously learned “gem” and use it properly enough to make the user scratch head with jaw dropped! Yeah…some of those, Gotcha moments!

Ultimately it is in the hands of the bot’s creator and the audience he/she wishes to engage.

Thanks for playing!

Is there any home automation system that you prefer? Any that you have found easy to interface to?

@Don, yeah, turns out that the JS Canvas element is really ridiculously easy to draw stuff on programmatically. Lots of credit to this tutorial which covers about everything needed to build a basic ‘world’ with shapes, images and arrow key movement:

http://html5gamedev.samlancashire.com/making-a-simple-html5-canvas-game-part-1-moving-a-sprite/

As usual, I am now having way too much fun spicing that room up rather than doing any serious improvements to Yoko like I should be doing. So now it has sound and ‘3D’ walls and things like that. Better get cracking on linking what goes on in that room to my knowledge base darn it!

(http://www.yokobot.com/index.php?p=2dworld suggestions welcome )

Art, sounds like you have a lot of experience with chat bots over many years - can you perhaps point us to some of those you consider really amazing, recalling earlier knowledge and conversing smoothly? Always looking to learn

One concept for chatbots is to eventually have the capability to act as an alter ego for ourselves. I can picture running several chatbots that are empowered to perform specific functions in my stead. I would want the chatbots to be indistinguishable from myself to whatever person or web site with which it was interacting.

Merlin - Aug 18, 2013:

Is there any home automation system that you prefer? Any that you have found easy to interface to?

Merlin,
As far as systems I assume you wish to include protocol of equipment in which case, the X-10 system has been ridden hard and often, by thousands of people for over 30 years. Though reliability wasn’t always the very best, for the money it was a blast to use for experimental and pleasurable purposes. It was basically a one way communication device in that there was no practical way to verify that a signal had actually been received by the receiving unit or not.

Insteon is said by some to be a step above X-10 and a little more expensive. Working practically the same way, transmitter to module to activate a device (lamp on / off, etc.).

Z-wave - a more enhanced system of reliable devices and two way protocol between them. Not exactly the easiest to set up but not on the difficult side either. It formed a bridge / network able to re-route itself in case a device lost signal or failed for some reason.

The software for X-10 was Active Home Pro and allowed for timers, macros, scheduling, sensors, alarms, etc. Limitation was one’s mind! There are other software vendors that support the X-10 protocol and some are very noteworthy contenders. Same thing said for Insteon and Z-wave.

HAl (Home Automated Living) and Homeseer are two commercial entries that allow for a fine level of Home Automation with Homeseer, IMHO having the edge, especially with Z-wave.
These two allow for speech input and output as well.

Micasa Verde has Vera, a hardware device that allows one to operate devices via a web server, site, tablet or smart phone from anywhere.

Others like Smart-i, iHouse and MyServant Suite allow for control at a very inexpensive cost and some for free. Do a search for Home Control, Home Automation, Connect4, and several others for more info and good luck!

Thanks Art,
I have looked at a few of these with an eye on how easy to would be to send a command from a bot to control and check the status of a device. As home automation increases in popularity, our intelligent home agent will be tasked with controlling the normal functions and security of our house. As the devices decrease in price and increase in popularity we will continue to see a move from the home hacker space to an expected function in any new, high end home.

It will be interesting to see how many companies attempt to build their own intelligent agent versus adopting a standard API to accomplish the task.

Yes, or as one person once put it, “The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from!”

There are some very high end packages that unfortunately are not within reach of the average person’s budget. I really came to like Homeseer as it offers a lot of functionality, user customization and supports a variety of devices, their software package is in the $500 range though it can often be found on sale.

A lot of software require the use of a Serial connection (remember those?) instead of a USB. There are cables available.

Check out YouTube and see examples of what’s possible with Homeseer and other packages.

If one just wants lights to come on and go off, simple timers can be purchased from the box stores very cheaply. Automation, however can add a great degree of “intelligence” if you will, to a home.

Let’s see what unfolds….

Wouter Smet - Aug 18, 2013:

Art, sounds like you have a lot of experience with chat bots over many years - can you perhaps point us to some of those you consider really amazing, recalling earlier knowledge and conversing smoothly? Always looking to learn

It’s sort of like asking, “Which is the best dog?”

There are a lot of possibilities and each for a different like or feature.

I do prefer the learnable / teachable bots and have for years. Simply scripted bots are nice but think about a human in a play. Not much room for creativity. Even so, Some are very impressive in their interaction.

Even with that, here are some that I have enjoyed.
Some really interesting bots or NLP entities from over the years that come to mind are, SHRDLU, Aaronbeta, AIB, Alex2, Alice and derivatives, Cassandra, Chatscript, Daisy2, Mitsuku, Prelude, SkyNet-AI, Sylvia, UltraHal….

I’m sure I missed some and these are but a sample of those in an archived collection of sorts. Some of the ones mentioned are simply fun to chat with and others show real promise of developing to be much stronger.

Just my take, since you asked. Id like to see your list as well.

Merlin - Aug 18, 2013:

Is there any home automation system that you prefer? Any that you have found easy to interface to?

How much (more) privacy are you willing to relinquish?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/9-household-items-could-spying-100006425.html

Come on, the average hacker is not interested in making my lights flick on and off or starting my coffee pot. Notice the wording “Could, Might and If” throughout the article.

True, a lot of privacy is already gone in the UK and is fast eroding in the USA and other countries as well, but I’m pretty sure most of these are done on a much grander scale than wondering what time your alarm is set for or what time you leave for work. There are far more important things in the world of the “Spooks”.

Pay mind that every electronic correspondence is already recorded / monitored…fax, email, cell phone, land line, interoffice communications, etc. In or near major metropolitan cities, the average person is photographed / recorded more than 20 times each day, often without even knowing it.

Privacy? What’s that? Try using the new P2P system. Yes, it’s old school but it works best for sharing confidential info.
That’s P2P (Person 2 Person) and it works. A secret only fails if more than one person knows about it!!

I’m sorry but my house is calling me…gotta go!!

Art Gladstone - Aug 19, 2013:

Come on, the average hacker is not interested in making my lights flick on and off or starting my coffee pot. Notice the wording “Could, Might and If” throughout the article.

True, a lot of privacy is already gone in the UK and is fast eroding in the USA and other countries as well, but I’m pretty sure most of these are done on a much grander scale than wondering what time your alarm is set for or what time you leave for work. There are far more important things in the world of the “Spooks”.

Pay mind that every electronic correspondence is already recorded / monitored…fax, email, cell phone, land line, interoffice communications, etc. In or near major metropolitan cities, the average person is photographed / recorded more than 20 times each day, often without even knowing it.

Privacy? What’s that? Try using the new P2P system. Yes, it’s old school but it works best for sharing confidential info.
That’s P2P (Person 2 Person) and it works. A secret only fails if more than one person knows about it!!

I’m sorry but my house is calling me…gotta go!!

It’s not always hackers that concern me.  I’m also concerned about the “legal” kind of snooping that we’re all subjected to… marketing research, prying into our medical information that’s supposed to be protected, and hidden cameras where don’t expect them.

I agree, anyone truly interested in obtaining your personal information… your credit cards, your Social Security number, your medical history, probably wouldn’t be looking at your refrigerator, your light switch, or your coffee pot, but corporations interested in your purchasing habits might be.  Insurance companies might be interested in observing your electronic medicine cabinet of the future, the way hotel rooms can tell which alcoholic beverage you removed from the bar in your room.  How do you feel about your TV/cable system watching you as you watch it?  How would most of us feel seeing our private intimate moments on YouTube?

The thing is, where do you draw the line?  Should we just cave in because we’re already subjected to so much of it?

Maybe you missed this item in the news recently.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/08/baby-monitor-hacking-alarms-houston-parents/