Art: you requested a stand-alone chatbot. I hope you have a smartphone.... here's my reply..
Someone commenting on this year's Loebner's wrote:
"I’m not sure if Bruce sent in the correct version of his bot, as it was trying to convince the judges it was a cat rather than a human."
It was not a mistake. It was a calculated risk.
Could the judges accept a talking "cat" as the best conversationalist or would they be fixated on it being "human" in the literal sense.
A few years ago the judges accepted Elbot the robot as the Loebner winner, so it seemed a plausible bet.
But I don't think I lost 1st place this year because I entered a cat. I had trouble with my and the judges handling of carriage returns. A protocol wrapper change I made proved highly detrimental.
Angela is the epitome of a well-developed ChatScript chatbot. She is clearly much better than my two previous Loebner-winning chatbots.
As one of our jaded testers who had to converse with her for hours at a time ( multiple times) wrote on the final version:
"The talk started brilliantly, so light and witty, I loved it. Really enjoyed some parts. On a few occasions I've noticed myself so immersed in the experience I forgot I'm in an illusion."
Not to say there aren't the usual discordant notes. This is a chatbot, after all, not a sentient being.
Actually, Angela is not a "cat" in the sense of the Felis catus housecat species. She is, in her late teens, an evolved member of the Felis fabulatus species.
Much as we are descended from apes, she is descended from cats. She just honors her heritage. You can always ask her about her evolutionary history.
She is now released as an iOS product known as Tom Loves Angela, by Outfit7. A joint project between them and Sue Wilcox and myself. She runs entirely locally, no server involved.
I estimate that a civil conversation will run about 20 hours before she runs dry. Android version due shortly.
iPhone app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tom-loves-angela/id526011730?mt=8iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tom-loves-angela-for-ipad/id526012271?mt=8
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May 19, 2013
