Talk:Chatbot

Open source bots

Links to open source bots would be nice... seeking now -- User:DennisDaniels

I've got a very short chatterbot program (<30 lines) which I could add to the article. I wrote it myself in 1984 and as far as I'm concerned it's Open Source. -- Derek Ross | Talk 14:00, 2004 Jun 18 (UTC)

Well, 33 including blank lines -- Derek Ross | Talk 03:35, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

SHRDLU

SHRDLU was an experiment in natural language understanding, but it hardly qualifies as a chatterbot. The crucial difference is that SHRDLU did know what it was talking about -- or at least "attempted" to. Its purpose, unlike a chatterbot, wasn't just trying to convince human operators that a "real person" was on the other end (except indirectly -- but then any human being qualifies as one, too. :-) -- JRM 12:26, 2004 Sep 1 (UTC)

Agreed. However it's probably worth mentioning it just to point out that it's not a chatbot. -- Derek Ross | Talk 02:57, 2004 Sep 2 (UTC)

That gets a bit too specific, I think -- perhaps a general reference to natural language processing would be better (of which chatterbots are but a specific (and rather whimsical) instance). -- JRM 11:47, 2004 Sep 2 (UTC)

WikiChat -- a simple Chatterbot example

In principle a chatterbot can be a very short program. For instance the following program — which should be copied and saved as WikiChat.BAS — implements a chatterbot which will learn phrases in any language by repetition in much the same way that a parrot does.

WikiChat:
  DEFINT A-Z
  GOSUB Initialise
  GOSUB LoadData
  GOSUB Converse
  GOSUB StoreData
  SYSTEM

Initialise:
  LET DictionarySize = 1000
  DIM Context$(DictionarySize) 'The character sequences that WikiChat has already seen
  DIM Alternatives$(DictionarySize) 'The characters that WikiChat may print after recognising a sequence.
  LET EmptyRow = 0
  LET EndOfResponseCharacter$ = CHR$(180)
  LET ContextLength = 6  'A bigger value makes WikiChat more grammatical but slower learning.
  LET CurrentContext$ = STRING$(ContextLength, EndOfResponseCharacter$)
  LET DictionaryFile$ = "WIKICHAT.MEM"
  RANDOMIZE TIMER
  RETURN

Converse:
  DO
    LINE INPUT "Human: "; Response$
    IF Response$ = "" THEN EXIT DO
    LET Response$ = Response$ + EndOfResponseCharacter$
    GOSUB MemoriseHumanResponse
    LET Response$ = ""
    GOSUB GenerateComputerResponse
    PRINT "Computer: "; Response$
  LOOP
  RETURN

MemoriseHumanResponse:
  DO WHILE Response$ > ""
    LET CurrentCharacter$ = LEFT$(Response$, 1)
    LET Response$ = MID$(Response$, 2)
    GOSUB InsertCharacter
    LET CurrentContext$ = MID$(CurrentContext$, 2) + CurrentCharacter$
  LOOP
  RETURN

GenerateComputerResponse:
   DO
     GOSUB Lookup
     LET CurrentCharacter$ = MID$(Alternatives$(DictionaryIndex), INT(RND * LEN(Alternatives$(DictionaryIndex))) + 1, 1)
     IF CurrentCharacter$ = "" THEN
       EXIT DO
     ELSE
       LET CurrentContext$ = MID$(CurrentContext$, 2) + CurrentCharacter$
       IF CurrentCharacter$ = EndOfResponseCharacter$ THEN
         EXIT DO
       ELSE
         LET Response$ = Response$ + CurrentCharacter$
       END IF
     END IF
   LOOP
   RETURN

InsertCharacter:
  GOSUB Lookup
  IF INSTR(Alternatives$(DictionaryIndex), CurrentCharacter$) = 0 THEN
    LET Alternatives$(DictionaryIndex) = Alternatives$(DictionaryIndex) + CurrentCharacter$
  END IF
  RETURN

Lookup:
  LET Context$(EmptyRow) = CurrentContext$
  LET DictionaryIndex = 0
  DO WHILE CurrentContext$ <> Context$(DictionaryIndex)
    LET DictionaryIndex = DictionaryIndex + 1
  LOOP
  IF DictionaryIndex = EmptyRow AND DictionaryIndex < DictionarySize THEN
    LET Alternatives$(EmptyRow) = ""
    LET EmptyRow = DictionaryIndex + 1
  END IF
  RETURN

LoadData:
  OPEN DictionaryFile$ FOR APPEND AS #1
  CLOSE #1
  OPEN DictionaryFile$ FOR INPUT AS #1
  DO WHILE EmptyRow < DictionarySize AND NOT EOF(1)
    LINE INPUT #1, Context$(EmptyRow)
    LINE INPUT #1, Alternatives$(EmptyRow)
    LET EmptyRow = EmptyRow + 1
  LOOP
  CLOSE #1
  RETURN

StoreData:
  OPEN DictionaryFile$ FOR OUTPUT AS #1
  FOR DictionaryIndex = 0 TO EmptyRow - 1
    PRINT #1, Context$(DictionaryIndex)
    PRINT #1, Alternatives$(DictionaryIndex)
  NEXT
  CLOSE #1
  RETURN

Note that to begin with, this chatterbot knows nothing and therefore says nothing. However if one uses simple conversation with it, like a parrot it will begin to reply as it starts to find responses that are appropriate for the immediately preceding sentence.

Image update

Perhaps the first image could be updated? Would an image such as File:A pictorial interpretation of the Wikipedia encyclopedia, created by ChatGPT.jpg suffice? –Gluonz ^{talk contribs} 23:34, 20 September 2024 (UTC)