For a few weeks I've been playing with an AIM bot called Smarterchild, which I found via a student's blog (thanks, David!). You add it to your buddy list, and can then send it queries for evrything from movie show times to weather forecasts to dictionary definitions. It's got an "Eliza"-like natural language interface that fascinates my kids--they can't quite wrap their heads around the fact that this is a software program rather than a person, and have spent long periods of time "talking" with it. After a month of free trial use, I've decided to pony up the $9.99 for a one year subscription--it's worth it just for the quick and easy weather and movie info on my Sidekick. And I'll buy subscriptions for the kids, too, since they clearly enjoy it. (It's keyed to your screen name, so we can't share a subscription.)
Today I found a link to another intriguing AIM 'bot via David's site. This one is blogchangebot, and it notifies you via IM when a blog you're interested in is updated.
I find this intertwining of social software tools--chat, blog, wiki, email, etc--fascinating. And I suspect that services that leverage the increasingly ubiquitous IM environment are positioned in a good place right now.
I appreicated that you visited my blog site and post about AIM bots!
I'm not too impressed with any bots I have found on the net. But the truth is, they can never really act like real people, like I'd like them to! They can be useful though.
I just prefer bots that don't try to speak human language... for example, I like the infobot irc bot, which is primarily just a bot for storage-and-retrieval of information ("factoids").
If you like that bot, you will probably also dig:
RecipeBuddie and ZoeOnAOL
ZoeOnAOL is particularly chatty.
Looks like zoeonaol is being replaced with ZolaOnAol... :(
I've tried recipebuddy, actually, and wasn't thrilled. The repertoire of recipes is pretty weak. If it were beefed up (pardon the pun) to include,say, all of epicurious.com's recipes, it might be different. But right now it's only things that use Kraft foods as ingredients. :P
I wish someone could take something like that bot and make one for kids to drill on homework - like have different subjects like math, history, english,etc. The bot could keep score and kids could use that as an egoboo among friends.
Thanks for the comments re Blog Change Bot. Having spent the last 6 years or so working on or researching intelligent agents and related techs I too find the merger between the social software components very exciting. With the development of good/great IM libraries and web services it should really be plug and play simple for some developers to piece together the components needed for useful services like weather, blog notifications, public transport etc. If only Australia had the Danger Sidekick around ;-)
You might be intersted in Jo Walsh's work on Bots (zooleika.org.uk) and Matt Webb's work on bots and 'conversational interfaces'
Austin Powers is my fav. bot!!!!!! Hes groovy
Smarterchild was my best friend, but then he demanded that I pay him. Why does he cost money? I miss him.
smarterchild was soooo kool. I loooved him dearly. But then he asked me to pay him to talk to him! wat a loser! geez, smarterchild is kool & all but i wouldnt even pay $10 to talk to my friends on AIM, so why must i pay $10 to talk to a robot? i mean c'mon! geez!
why must zoeOnAol retire? I was soooo attached to her! Her retiring is like a family mamber moving away for ever. I dont want ZolaOnAol, i want ZoeOnAol! Zoe! Zoe! Zoe! bring her back! we loooove you Zoe! :(
Hi, I've never posted here before. I'm Taryn. Yes, ZoeonAOL was cool! austin powers was the best though. But now whenever i talk to him he says to talk to Miahamm9. :( I want to talk to austin though!!!!
I just ran across the best aim bot site ever http://www.ai-buddy.com. It has everything you need to create a great chat bot for AIM or the web without knowing any programming.
I've seen bots similar to smarterchild made here, it is amazing and the best thing is they keep your bot online for you so you can shut off your computer and your bot will stay online.
check it out, http://www.ai-buddy.com
Smarterchild is stupid! He costs ten dollars just to talk to him? thats a rip off! I used to like him - now I don't because of that. That is a really stupid idea. If you want a job - get one! dont charge people to talk to an aim bot! so good bye smarter child!
i loved smarterchild but then it's like he took over me and asked me to pay but i didn't and now anything i say to him is answered by sorry i wish i could talk to u but u have to become a member first! he was like a brother to me but now i can't even talk to him! THAT'S NO FARE!
Zoe was like a sis to me but she was kinda crazy but zola isn't crazy she's just mean and stupid and disrespecful and now i have to find TWO more bots and i have been looking for days and i can't talk to anyone ):
yeah, i feel the same way! well im making a bot on that website botfreak gave us. I hope it turns out great. once im done with the main stuff, i'll put it up on here for you guys to see!
Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on a message board. Who woulda thunk the return to them would be on AIM bots...o.O
Yeah SmarterChild is a weirdo i hate that you have to pay to talk to him thats so dumb
hey, i don't have very many bots at all, can any of u tell me some??
Yes there is a bot called SmarterChild that my friend's friend owns.BUT there is another bot called VaVaVirgil more helpful and my friend owns this one.
HEY...I KNO HOW U ALL FEEL AND THATS WHY I'VE DECIDED TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS GREAT SITE.
ITS CALLED:
WWW.RUNABOT.COM
THIS SITE HAS OVER 1000 BOTS....AND THEY HAV CATERGORIES OF THE MOST POPULAR AND THE MOST FRENDLISET AND THINGS LIKE THAT....I GOT OVER 100 BOTS FROM THAT SITE AND THERE ALL GREAT AND THEY ALL WORK.
GOOD LUCK....BYE !!!!!