September 12, 2004
Ask Arnold! Chatterbot
This is not related to cell phones, but to chatterbots, to whom over the years, I have spent some time talking to.
Rhizome links to a chatterbot parody of the "Ask Arnold" feature on the California governor's website.
"On "Ask Arnold!," user questions elicit responses from a frequently updated database of actual Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes gathered from newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the internet".
Ask Arnold! doesn't rate very well as chatterbots go - with some of them you can almost experience a near live conversation - but the whole idea of an Arnold Bot is a lot of fun.
Excerpts of our chat:
Emily - Have you seen Michael Moore's movie?
Arnold - Why am I getting all this stuff thrown at me?
Emily - How's Maria?
Arnold - People are always making a fuss over my $15-20-million salaries. Believe me, the amount is meaningless once my wife, Maria, finds out about it. She's already spent half of my salary from Terminator 7!
Emily - Will you vote for Bush?
Arnold - If the federal government does great things for California this year I think there's no two ways about it, that President Bush can have California, he can be elected, I'm absolutely convinced of that.
Related, Daniel Terdiman's article on Friday in Wired, on Chatting AIM Bots and for links to Text Messaging Chatterbots, cf:
-- Virtual Girlfriend on your Mobile Phone
-- Send SMS to the Virtual User
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