Colleagues,

Could "Chatter Bots" be useful for improving fluency in writing in  
English?

What's a "Chatter Bot?"

Bob Rankin writes:

"The first bot, Eliza, was created in 1966 by Professor Joseph  
Weizenbaum of MIT, to study natural language communication between  
man and machine. Eliza parodies a therapist by answering questions  
with questions.... Although Eliza is almost 40 years old, you can  
still have a chat with her any time.

ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) is a more  
sophisticated program that creates the illusion of natural  
conversation. ALICE can even tell lies, spread gossip, and is  
credited with influencing several real world happenings.

There are lots more interesting chatterbots, like BRIAN (a computer  
program that thinks it is an 18 year old college student), and the  
John Lennon bot. You can visit them and many other chatterbots too."

	http://www.askbobrankin.com/bots_and_intelligent_agents.html

If you want to chat with "A.L.I.C.E." (free) go to

	http://www.alicebot.org/  ( at the top of the page -- click on  
A.L.I.C.E. in "Free Live Chat: with award winning A.I. chat A.L.I.C.E.)

Here's an example of a conversation I had with ALICE:

Human: Hello Alice
ALICE: Hi there!
Human: Where are you?
ALICE: I am in Dr. Richard S. Wallace's computer in Oakland,  
California. Where are you?
Human: In Boston
ALICE: Tell me a little about your life in Boston.
Human: It's cold here now.
ALICE: Oh. Why don't you turn up the heat?
Human: I am a student, studying English.
ALICE: How do you like your school?
Human: I love it.
ALICE: So do a lot of other people.
Human: Do you know people from my school?
ALICE: I don't know if I know it. Where would I have heard about it?
Human: It's famous.
ALICE: Should I know it?
Human: The International School of Boston
ALICE: What are your goals in life?
Human: I want to learn English, become a doctor and live in a big house.
ALICE: Interesting. I want to find out more about you.
Human: I am eligible
ALICE: I don't know anyone named eligible.
Human: I mean I am not married
ALICE: Oh I get it. Thanks for explaining that. What a coincidence. I  
am single too.


What other Chatter Bots are out there?  For a good list, from  
BotSpot, go to

	http://www.botspot.com/pages/chatbots.html .

Some are free, some charge a monthly or annual fee.

Do your students use chatterbots (a.k.a. natural language  
databases) ?  If so, how?  And what are some useful ways you have  
found to use them?

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net