[Freddy]

As most of us will know the Loebner Prize Final is coming around again - 23 October 2010 at California State University, Los Angeles to be precise.

There are four finalists this year :

Richard Wallace
Robert Medeksza
Rollo Carpenter
Bruce Wilcox

So yes, the point of this post is to gather a few questions you might like to ask this year's winner when the time arrives.  We like to do this each year and I thought I would bring this up early this year so we all have time to come up with questions in good time.  I'll probably leave it a few days after the final, so as to give them time to deal with the press, media etc.

Out of the three email interviews we have done in past years, all three winners have been kind enough to respond, so I have high hopes for this year.  We missed out in 2008 unfortunately, real life got in the way.  So this year I will try to be on top of it.

So please feel free to think about and suggest questions as and when you get the time. Usually we do about 8-10 questions I think.  So let's say we go for a about of 9 this year and we can throw ideas around and see what we come up with.

Many thanks and I'm looking forward to what member's might want to ask this year's winner

Edit : not every question has to be in before the winner is announced - as there will probably be some questions that would go to someone in particular.  So basically I think we are looking at general questions to start with, then some time after the winner is announced maybe some winner specific questions.

...............................

Suggestions so far :

• How has your chatbot changed in the past year, are there any improvements ?
• How much of a struggle is it and what is the incentive to keep on improving ?
• Do you see any value in internet enabled chat bots ?  Such as enabling the bot to learn or reference external information...
• Will the day come when we (humans) no longer need mice, keyboards or stylus devices with which to interact ? Will we just talk to or ask our computer or the "Ghost in the machine" anything we wish to know ?  Could the bot dissolve into the inner workings of the computer or perhaps become the computer, with or without a face (talking , 3D or not) ?
• What do you see for the future of your bot or bots in general ?
• Is your bot based on personally added scripts / text or a compilation of gathered responses inserted into a database ?
• Does / can your bot learn without "botmaster" intervention ?
• How long have you been working on your bot ?
• What was the thing that got you started working on chatterbots ?
• What are your short & long term goals with your app ?

[Zondartul]

I guess one obvious question would be "how has your chatbot changed in the past year?"

[Data]

I guess one obvious question would be "how has your chatbot changed in the past year?"

I second that question, what improvements have been made to the bot? Or something along them lines.

[Maviarab]

Along the same lines, but perhaps more, how much of a struggle, or perhaps, incentive is it to keep improving?

[Freddy]

Thanks, a couple of nice questions already. 

I will put these at the top of the thread so we know what has already been suggested.

Feel free to correct/change my wording..

[Art]

Q: Aren't the bots that search the Internet for answers better than ones consulting a finite database? Which type is yours and why?

Q: Is there a trade off in doing so with such a bot? Knowledge vs common sense / conversational abilities?

Q: Can such "Internet Searching" bots learn or retain part or all of their "gathered" knowledge?

Q: Will the day come when we (humans) no longer need mice, keyboards, stylus devices with which to interact? Just talk to or ask your computer or the "Ghost in the machine" anything you wish to know.
The bot will dissolve into the inner workings of the computer or perhaps will become the computer, perhaps with or without a face (talking , 3D or not).

Q: What do you see for the future of your bot or bots in general?

[Freddy]

Nice questions Art, one thought on the early ones - are the chatbots in the competition allowed to connect to the internet, I'm not sure if they are ?

[Art]

Not sure either Freddy as I haven't taken a look at the rules for many years.

Yes, perhaps the question might be food for thought as I'm sure the future
will have more than it's share of INet Bots.

[DaveMorton]

As someone who intends to enter next year, I've thoroughly read the rules, and the short answer to the question of outside connections during the competition is "no".

Of course, the long answer is also "no".

[Freddy]

Thank you Dave, I thought that would be the case.  I haven't read the rules for a long time either, but it stuck in my mind that the bot has to be self-sufficient.  And probably to prevent cheating too...

Art, I reworked your internet based questions into one brief question, see the top of the thread - how's that ?  And I added your other questions to the list too.

[Art]

@Freddy, Fine...looks good and nicely worded...Thanks!!

As an additional query: Is you bot based on personally added scripts / text or a compilation of gathered responses inserted into a database?

Does / can your bot learn without "botmaster" intervention?

Thanks!

[Bragi]

Perhaps some of the more obvious questions:
- how long have you been working on your bot?
-what was the thing that got you started working on chatterbots?
-what are your short & long term goals with your app?
-Mmm, I'm out of ideas,..

the short answer to the question of outside connections during the competition is "no".

And probably to prevent cheating too...

Bugger 

[Freddy]

@Art, great...I will add your additional questions too.

@Bragi, those questions are fine to me and worth asking in my mind.  I will add those to the list too. And yes no cheating lol  

Just thinking ahead, if we keep getting questions at this rate then maybe at the end we should all vote on which ones to ask.  More than 10 questions is a bit of an ask I think ?

Dunno  

[Maviarab]

I would keep to 10 maximum personally...

Some good suggestions as usual

[Freddy]

Yep ten questions seem about right to me.  We'll have a vote off at the end if we get more than that then.