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. "

What?!

[archeopterix]

Adding an animated cartoon is supposed to be the 'next generation AI'? So, stickers with flames are 'the next generation in automotive industry'? Jeeeez...

Next generation? No.

[mustafap]

It would be like calling Vista a next generation operating system.

IMHO, the next generation in artifical intelligence - ie, going beyound anthropomorphic trickery - isn't going to happen until we actually understand what intelligence is. And to that we neen philosophers, not engineers. Once they get it worked out, we (the engineers) might be better equipped to do something.

Thanks to the likes of Thales and Descartes et al we have some great questions, but answers? I think not.

If someone thinks otherwise I'd love to hear about it.

Re:Joan won the bronze Loebner (turing test)

[russ1337]

I'd like to see one of these website claim they have an AI bot, but actually join two users together. Then post the conversation somewhere.

I'm sure the conversation would be just as random as a person-bot chat with two people trying to out-trick each other and all.