A conversational agent is a Agent (data-processing) which dialogs with a user. Research on this Man-machine Interface is influenced by the competition on the Test of Turing (1950): to give the illusion which a program thinks by a judicious dialog.
L' English “robot speaking” or chatterbox “speaking box”, limit the complexity of this communication. To cat means to chatter, by short and instantaneous exchanges, like the human ones with a Logiciel of cat . Conversational French ( cum, Co, idiot “together”, versus “towards”) adds the concept of convergence between the human one and the machine. In this direction, the dialog boxes acquire a utility, in particular since the development of Internet. A user is invited to formulate his demand for natural language, it is refined by a convivial exchange, whose software interprets a operational Requête for its Information system. A conversational agent can moreover seek the Effet ELIZA. ELIZA, one of the first chatterbots , simulated a Psychothérapeute rogérien, several people would have become dependant about it émotionnellement. The conversational agents thus overflow research or the entertainment, they implement knowledge Linguistique S, Psychologique S, and of course Informatique S.

Method

A chatterbot is a program (robot) which tries to converse with a person during a few minutes or more by giving appearance of a conversation with human. It is true that a good comprehension of the conversation is necessary to the behavior of a judicious dialog, but the majority of the chatterbots are not tested there. They rather locate the key words or the expressions of their interlocutor to find answers prepared or calculated in advance and which can carry out the conversation more far from one more or less intelligent manner, but without requiring to include/understand what they speak.

History

The first chatterbots were ELIZA, PARRY, and SHRDLU.

ELIZA was creates in 1966. It had been created by Joe Weizenbaum, of the Massachusetts Institute off Technology (MIT), and took only 3 pages in language SNOBOL.

• It started by raising a neutral question ( Hello. Why do you come to see me? ) with the person tested, then each time analyzed the answer to try to rest a question in relation to this one.

• If a question were asked to him, it required why one asked him the question
• If a sentence contained the word computer , it asked: do you Say that because I am a machine?
• etc

Contests of chatterbot are organized each year to promote the emulation in this field. Currently, one attends the birth of many chatterbots, partly thanks to the Prix Loebner, which tries to be a kind of Test of Turing. At the time of these contests, in order to evaluate the chatterbot, the jury can dialog either with human or with a chatterbox through an interface keyboard/screen. At the end of a certain time, the jury must evaluate if the candidate tested is a machine or not.

The most daring chatterbots are those which try to extract from knowledge of their conversations like ECTOR (in English, learning club-footed ), but these are also those whose results are currently the least impressive.

Traps

Here some traps (often easy to thwart) to which the jury can guess if the candidate is a chatterbox or not:

• To ask how much made 7x4¹⁰/4.3: if the candidate answers too quickly, there will not be any doubt that he is a chatterbox. But the majority of the chatterboxs precisely simulate variable times of reflection .
• To try to cause a reaction by declaring something of incredible, although the obvious answer is: Pourquoi do you change subject abruptly?
• Demander, (for example) which of a jet or my index is largest. A chatterbot will not succeed whereas it is obvious for a human candidate.

Techniques to delude the jury

• To try to simulate a follow-up of conversation.
• To be very unforeseeable.

See too

• Artificial intelligence
• conversational Analysis
• Test of Turing
• Frontage (video game)

External bonds

• Converse with Eliza
• Dialoguez with '' a '' chatterbox
• a complete article on the conversational agents
• a list of Web sites speaking about chatterbots (in English and French)
• Définition and principles of operation of a conversational agent

Random links:

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