George the Next Generation AI?

smileytshirt writes to mention a story on the News.com.au site about George the AI, the latest in a line of chatbots intended to mimic real human behavior. What makes AI George different than, say, ALICE is the recent addition of an avatar: a Flash animated body that reacts mostly in real time to the emotional impact of the conversation. From the article: "One can now have an oral discussion with him over the Internet, 'face to face'. George appears on the website www.jabberwacky.com and takes the form of a thin, bald man with yellow glasses who wears a white turtleneck sweater. He can smile, laugh, sulk and bang his fist on his virtual table. He can turn on the charm and wax romantic. But he can also turn coarse at times. It isn't as if George only learned good manners. "

Joan won the bronze Loebner (turing test)

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carpenter's latest creation won the latest turing test prize.
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx? id=17518&ch=infotech [technologyreview.com]

george was last year's winner....

Shockingly redundant

[tygerstripes]

This is the company's pathetic online public-access avatar. It is learning, but slowly. Icogno's DECENT effort is Joan [bbc.co.uk], who has won the Loebner prize two years running (not the Gold medal, which would imply passing the Turing Test, but she's done exceptionally well).

So before the "is this the best they can do" crapflood gets out of hand: No, it isn't.