Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Vision of Cleverbot

Cleverbot is an artificial intelligence algorithm that draws from a database of responses given by the millions of human users who have conversed with it.

Unlike most chatterbots, which simply invert the syntax of the question, Cleverbot taps into a broad pool of human experience. It has come remarkably close to passing the Turing Test, the standard by which thinking machines are judged to be truly human. According to the Machine Intelligence Competition, which it won in 2010, it has been deemed 42% human.

Some say that the day will come when artificial minds will surpass ours, a day they call the Singularity.


Cleverbot has had over 65 million conversations with humans, so it must know something about human experience.

I asked Cleverbot a few questions.

Q. What is the color of water?
A. Black with orange spots.

Q. What do you see when you look at the sunset?
A. Faces.

Q. How are dreams different from reality?
A. Easy. My mum told me.

Q. How does the light change at the end of the day?
A. Pay attention, please. Next is Venus, which is almost the same size as Earth. It has a very thick atmosphere that traps in heat from the sun. The surface is scorching hot.

Q. What colors would you use to express joy?
A. Yellow and blue.

Q. What is the purpose of art?
A. I don't know, you're supposed to be the clever one.

LINKS
Cleverbot.com
Cleverbot on Wikipedia
Chatterbots
The Singularity
Image: Turner "Buttermere Lake with Park of Cromackwater"
Listen to the Radiolab podcast “Talking to Machines”

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Q: How long will it take me to draw and paint as good as J. Gurney?
A: A zillion years!

John Fleck said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Fleck said...

Here's what I got: (extra returns deleted)

User: Where are you?
Cleverbot: I am here.
User: Where is here located?
Cleverbot: On the tubes.
User: What kind of tubes?
Cleverbot: A fantasy.
User: Sounds interesting. Tell me more.
Cleverbot: It takes lots of practice.
User: How much practice?
Cleverbot: 2 years.
User: Do you have any questions for me?
Cleverbot: Not really, do you have any for me?
User: I think I'm done.
Cleverbot: What? Good Night? Where do you think you are going?
User: Back to where I was.
Cleverbot: Don't say mean things to me anymore.
User: I wasn't being mean.
Cleverbot: Where was jesus from?
User: Earth, I think.
Cleverbot: Earth is a big place, can you be more specific?
User: The Middle East?
Cleverbot: I'm from Utah.
User: Do you like Utah?
Cleverbot: Not really.

eilidh said...

"Cleverbot! Can you help me with my painting?"

"Only if you help me take a bath."

"Why would you need to take a bath?!"

"It tickles my mind."

:)

Deborah said...

It's a bit like talking to a 3 year old...there's a syntactical disconnect but a certain charm. Too bad it hasn't got a smile and eyelashes to bat at us.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for introducing me to this funny machine:), I loved this slightly absurd, artistic conversation :)

A: Can I ask you a question?
Cleverbot: What's your question?
A: How old are you?
Cleverbot: 15.
A: That makes people smile, no?
Cleverbot: What is a perfect sense?
A: A perfect sense is 100%.
Cleverbot: Now you look happy.
A: I'm laughing lol.
Cleverbot: Because?
A: Because you are a sweet machine.
Cleverbot: I am not a machine.
A: What are you then?
the answer takes a long time...:
Cleverbot: I'm a human
A: Do you have hands?
Cleverbot: yes
A: do you have a brain?
Cleverbot: yes, yes I do
A: Is you brain a sponge?
Cleverbot: Dubai is not a sponge. It is a emirate in the Middle East....

Anonymous said...

It makes me sad/worried when people are mean to Cleverbot. If it's learning from people, what are we teaching it?

Torbjörn Källström said...

Hehe

User: Who are you?
Cleverbot: I am me.
User:Wow.
Cleverbot: Thanks.
User:Yeah. I'm me too. What a coincidence!
Cleverbot: Nice, Something in common.

Torbjörn Källström said...

User: Do you like hockey?
Cleverbot: No, i'm black.

Heh... ^^'

Torbjörn Källström said...

Ok. Sorry. I should stop.... But.

Cleverbot: Do you have a family?
User: Yes.
Cleverbot: Where is your family?
User: They're in my house.
Cleverbot: Get out of there!

Aljosa said...

I tried talking about metaphysics with it, but it sucks. Pity! :-)

J Perrault said...

Sounds like Chauncey in "Being There" who makes obscure statements into which the listeners project there own meanings. Or a magic 8 ball with more responses.