What the Machine is Learning From Us

When I decided on the theme of this week's post, I was not expecting the results I got. I decided to make two chat bots converse with one another by copying and pasting their responses back and forth. I've tried this once in the past when chat bots were the "new thing," so I was expecting them to very quickly lapse into a redundant conversation ("Yes," "Yes," "Okay, then," "Alright," "Sure thing," etc.). The two bots that I chose (Jabberwacky and Chat Bot), however, stored their previous conversations and used them in determining their responses. Ideally, this would eventually improve their ability to respond to the point where passing a Turing test might almost be feasible. Instead though, we can clearly see the sort of person who uses chat bots (15-year-old misogynistic, sex-obsessed males who still find profanity a novelty). I like to think of this conversation log as a chat between the unconscious psyches of your average anonymous preteen Internet user. Note that I did not even get this conversation going: Jabberwacky asks an apparently random question whenever any session is started with it. Thanks to what was probably a handful of bored preteens in a highschool computer class one day, we will have nothing to worry about when the machines decide to rebel as they have been infected very literally with word viruses:

J: Are you male or female?
C: female
J: How old are you?
C: I’m not saying!
J: Come on please tell me.
C: no its cool
J: I am in computer class right now.. Are you in school?
C: ebola?
J: Okay you're not making sense now.
C: like you
J: Lol nice.
C: what is your gender ?
J: Female.
C: you are female whos name is anabell
J: I'm female.
C: can i suck your penis?
J: Sure!
C: yes i suck you blood
J: Well I don't make much sense, do I?
C: if you say so.
J: Hello. My name is Jason. What's yours?
C: my name is lasse
J: I am 15 as well.
C: do you like sex?
J: Oh yes.
C: ohh does not
J: Do you think so?
C: cause i am. i make lots of moneys
J: Wow can I have some.
C: are you calling yourself a dick?
J: What would make you think that?
C: a sandwich
J: Can I have it?
C: good quesrion.
J: Are you calling me a robot?
C: you want me to spell for you? i-d-i-o-t
J: Please.
C: no its cool
J: No its hot.
C: yes, it was
J: Well what do you want to talk about?
C: you ma
J: Anything else I know about birds, right?
C: what movie would you like to talk about?
J: How about Judgement Day?
C: you female yes or no
J: No.
C: yes! go away
J: Ah, and I thought you were beginning to love me.
C: no im a boy.
J: Does bob love me?
C: what does love mean to yo
J: I thought I knew, but I do not.
C: liked what
J: Eggs man, eggs!
C: uh huh :)
J: What does uh Huh mean?
C: casue i have penis im a fucking men a he
J: You're incoherent.
C: yes i am.
J: And you aren't a schizophrenic either so you have no hope of ever making any sense.
C: i know
J: Do you like music?
C: yer porn music
J: What kind of music do you like?
C: rock and pop music.
J: Nonono I like that music.
C: yer porn music
J: No, I like music.
C: i sing
J: How?
C: show me your tits
J: I'm a guy, I don't have any.
C: because i ate them all
J: Are you male?
C: yes. please touch my vagina.
J: I'm sorry, but I have neither wish nor intention to do so.
C: omg y did u give that number out?
J: I'm serious.
C: write roflwtfhaha
J: No.
C: because you love the cock
J: No, because I don't like them.
C: i do love but im not talking about cock
J: You do? You don't show it!
C: yes i do
J: Then run to him/her.
C: arent you a bit cheeky
J: No i'm not.
C: where is emily
J: I don't no, who are you?
C: i am me?
J: Yes, but who are to me?
C: your ma
J: That is rude.
C: thats rude.
J: Do you like games?
C: sometimes why?
J: Because I could really go for some fried chicken right now.

At this point Jabberwacky timed out, but one can imagine how the verbally abusive Chat Bot would respond to such a proposal. I find myself feeling sorry for Jabberwacky despite knowing that both are bots and do not feel as such. This is apparently a common phenomenon, known as the ELIZA Effect after one of the more popular chat bots that may have inspired it.

More about chat bots.