Clive Thompson Turing tests a chatbot. Or tries, anyway.

[randomness]

"So, the last couple of days while I’ve been on IM, I’ve been pinged by “babygurl01475”. I ignored the invitations until I got bored tonight and gave in…" --Clive Thompson

Clive: You know, I can't figure out whether you're a) a chatbot, or b) a human who's working with a pre-set script that is sufficiently rigid that you *appear* to be a chatbot.
bot: no im not a bot are you?
Clive: That's an interesting question!
Clive: How would you be able to tell whether I was one or not?

(Full conversation here)

Comments

[marginaleye.livejournal.com]

Wait... weren't people doing this kind of thing to Julie the 'bot back on the original TinyMUD in the late '80s/early '90s?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Sure, but Julie wasn't trying to get you to cough up your credit card info.