Getting Started with A.L.I.C.E.

Caleb Clark writes "This open source bot was so much fun I had to write a tutorial: Getting Started with the A.L.I.C.E. bot and Mac OSX. A beginning tutorial on using OSX to install, modify, and serve an award winning open source chat bot made with XML and Java. ALICE bot won the 2000 Loebner Prize (Turning Test) for most human bot. She's made in an XML language called Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) and uses Java to run. This is a great environment for newbies to work with basic A.I. by Variable Hacking existing XML code to make their own bot."

AIML?

[heliocentric]

Hmmm, did anyone check with the good natured folks over at AOL? They seem to have issues [slashdot.org] with programs that have AIM hidden in them somewhere.

Useful, or strictly for fun?

[shibboleth]

Is there an Alicebot FAQ? Didn't see one at www.alicebot.org or www.faqs.org.

I was wondering for example what practical apps are being worked on with Alice.

I like the http://alicebot.org/committees/education.html idea of creating a network of conversing Alicebots. Instead of having a bunch of search engines each trying to out-index each other by swallowing the entire web, it would sure save alot of work, time, and disk space if they could cooperate by specializing in certain areas and asking each other questions.

Has anyone attempted to use an Alicebot as a natural language front end to, eg, a corporate helpdesk knowledgebase? This is a very practical area as evidenced by all the companies doing automated-email replies to questions and websites using Ask-Jeeves-type sw.

Anyone working on a program to convert English text into AIML that Alice could use to answers q's about the original text?

BTW, when i logged into the alice listbot it said that it was shutting down 8/6. Where will the new home for the mailing list be? Wherever it is I suggest entering its address per http://www.mail-archive.com/faq.html#newlist so there is a searchable,redundant archive.