My Weekend: Talking to a Computer

My weekend consisted of many things.  It consisted of a lot of stress as I had to memorize a 5 stanza poem and create an academic poster for a class project.  It also consisted of a loud and rowdy Grey Cup game with a plentiful audience in the Student Life Center.  I did not watch the game in great detail.  I was in the same room as a TV that was playing the Grey Cup.  I watched the game by judging audience reaction.  I rejoiced at the end of the game when the Montreal Alouettes won due to a technicality.  Not that I am an Alouettes fan of course.  I am a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan, thus I can not bring myself to cheer for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The most significant part of my weekend that deserves a blog mention is the discovery of an AI avatar called Joan.  I spent at least a solid two hours in two sessions talking to this thing the past three days.  You can carry on a decent conversation with her.  Apparently, she formulates her responses based on context and past user responses.  Sometimes, she gives lame responses, but the majority of the time, her responses are intelligent and witty.  I even tried engaging in a debate with her about God and evolution.  She gave intelligent responses for a good amount of time before she started contradicting herself.  Of course, if you wish to engage in some cheap entertainment, you can start hitting on her as well.  Either way, it is almost addicting and quite entertaining either way.  I recommend you check it out.

Here is the link.  http://www.icogno.com/joan.html.