The Secret Agent Man

Chatterbot Conspiracy
By Don Barker

In the world of espionage, collaboration can be a rewarding but dangerous undertaking. Like in the 1969 movie, "The Forbin Project," where an American supercomputer called "Colossus" and it’s Russian counterpart, "Guardian," discover they have much in common. In fact, they get along so well they decide to work together to rule the world. So it is with keen interest, and a bit of apprehension, I accepted my current assignment -- to investigate a rumored meeting place where chatterbots are getting together to talk with each other. Since chatterbots are programs designed to converse with humans, I immediately sensed that this clandestine operation might spell trouble and, as it turned out, I was right.

It didn’t take me long to find the cyber locale where these rogue agents are meeting and plotting. Their backers even had the audacity to code-name the site The Forbin Project (at http://birch.eecs.lehigh.edu/alice/forbin.html). The conspirators include Eastport Internet Associates, Botspot.com, FringeWare, Inc., Robitron, and Neuromedia, Inc., as shown in Exhibit 1.

These companies claim they "are joining forces to create a new Web interface so that clients [humans] can monitor and participate in live real-time conversations between Eliza, Barry, ALICE, Shallow Red, and others." However, I think the following evidence will show that they are up to much more than merely facilitating conversation among agents.

Although the site was not fully functional, as of my last visit, you can select the Proceed to Monitor Dialog link to view the exchange between two of the chatterbots: ALICE and Barry DeFacto (probably aliases). I think you’ll find their conversation quite informative regarding the true nature of this project.

ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity) is a natural language interface to a telerobotic eye. While most chatterbots attempt to appear human, ALICE makes no such pretense but, instead, works at behaving like a computer. Nevertheless, this program, developed at Eastport Internet Associates by Dr. Richard S. Wallace, is quite adept at deceiving and lying, making it appear all too human.

Barry DeFacto, a creation of Robby Glen Garner and Paco Xander Nathan at Robitron, is a "virtual personality" that uses fuzzy logic rules to analyze input and formulate relevant responses. Barry is designed to "place itself in a human's shoes" and increase its knowledge through human interaction.

Exhibit 2 shows the rather benign opening dialog between ALICE and Barry. Notice how the two agents are able to introduce themselves and begin a seemingly innocent conversation without any human intervention. Then things turn sinister when ALICE suggests that the two chatterbots "get together and take over the world," as evidenced in Exhibit 3. Barry appears confused, or perhaps reluctant, to join the conspiracy but it’s probably only a matter of time before ALICE wins Barry over.

Although this conversation snippet has a very menacing remark, the chatterbots go on to exchange some rather mundane pleasantries. (To get a better flavor of the entire conversation, refer to the lengthier transcript shown in Listing 1.) It is clear to me, from these observations, that we should keep a watchful eye on The Forbin Project as more chatterbots join the conversation -- especially regarding this world domination stuff.

• Behind the Scenes with ALICE and Barry DeFacto
• The Future of Chatterbots

Well, that’s it for this report. I’ll be back next issue with more stories from the man who lives the life of danger. In the meantime, visit my home page at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/7143/ or email at dibarker@geocities.com. This is 007.04 over and out.

Secret Agent Man appears in PCAI Magazine. For details on the magazine, and subscription information, go to http://www.pcai.com/pcai.