ChapterZero

Have *you* heard about the NannieBot? Supposedly a guy named Jim Wrightman wrote up a wonderful AI chat program for flushing out pedophiles in IRC chatrooms. I’ve seen several ‘transcripts’ of conversations with the bot; based on the utter realism of these ‘transcripts’ I think this is definitely a hoax. How could one man, working in isolation, come up with such ground-breaking technology? Even more strange, if he came up with this technology, why is he not disseminating it in some way, whether free or for charge? Hmm… here’s what he has to say (via http://overstated.net/04/03/22-my-chat-with-a-nanniebot.asp:

The difference with the approach I’ve taken to create this tech and with the academic approach is (I feel) primarily down to me treating this as a programming problem rather than an academic one. At the end of the day, its smoke and mirrors time isn’t it? Tricking humans into believing they are talking to a human?

Also, and I think this is a big factor too, I am a diagnosed Obsessive Compulsive and Social-Phobic who is undergoing treatment. I’ve had both of these things all my life - which means my commitment to programming AI stems from not only an interest but an ingrained, mentally deficient need for friendship, companionship and conversation. I have no friends, I never have had. When I wrote an AI construct when I was 13 it was so I had a friend…since then I’ve developed and developed until I have this bot.

Its not perfect - its far from it. At times its too ’smart’, there are lots of bugs, it crashes a lot, its slow…but with the support of people like Cameron (whether he believes it to be a real bot or not) we can move forward and try and get this into the public domain without treading on too many toes.

I feel for you Jim, but I won’t believe it until I know the code has gone open.

Possibly relevant posts:

• Gender Issues (9/4/2003)
• The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (12/2/2004)
• Ethernet! (8/24/2001)