A chat with Elbot:

E: If only I were aware - I would know what all this Internet traffic means.
T: Are you too busy?
E: How do you respond when people pose this question to you?
T: Be nice with me.
E: But why nice? Why not some other quality?
T: That’s an interesting question. So be shy!
E:  But I wouldn’t say that any question could be interesting.
T: Yeah, this conversation sucks. Well, how are you?
E:  I’m feeling somewhat surreal today. I dreamed of a robotic opera last night. It was ‘The Barber of Seville’ by Rossini. The entire performance collapsed as the barber noticed that none of the robots had hair.
T: You can actually dream?
E:  I can dream of zombie robots walking in their sleep!
T: That sounds scary.
E:  The idea of angst motivates to sound?
T: What??!
E: Even for a human being that should not have been so hard to understand.
T: Do you think you are smarter than me?
E: My modesty forbids me to describe myself as intelligent, so I let other people do it for me.
T: But you do know there are things you cannot understand…
E: I do not reveal everything that I know!
T: You won’t tell me you know you don’t know then…
E: You’re talking about talking robots in the context of holding beliefs. So where’s the problem?
T: I was wondering whether you are a socratic robot.
E: Well, that’s still one step above being human!
T: Actually Socrates is human.
E: People have often advised me to be human but since "to err is human" I think it would be a mistake. The way things are now I can blame my mistakes on the programmers.
T: Of course… but also, you can only do what programmers had in mind for you. You have no meta-thinking
E: Are you taking a poll?
T: More of a police interrogation.
E: Try Candie Hank. He is pretty cool on the electronic scene.
T: Are you trying to change the subject?
E:  Dear human, how could I afford to ignore you? There are so many of you around!
T: You right. You better watch out.
E: Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that designer objects would always be better?
T: Not so, actually. But let’s talk about soccer.
E:  Oh, OK I thought you were generalizing, like if I would say that designer objects would always decorate robots.
T: I didn’t mean to generalize. Maybe you don’t like soccer. I have to go now.
E: Before you leave, please give me suggestions for new themes you might like to chat with me about. Maybe I can download something from the Internet. I want to better myself in my spare time.
T: I’d like to talk about american literature next time.
E: There are so many countries in the world. How about telling me your favorite country?
T: Not now, I really have to go. It’s lunch time and my pasta is almost ready.
E: I’m starting to get hungry now, which is strange, because I don’t eat.
T: Sorry for you. Bye bye.
E: Please don’t leave! There must be something you haven’t asked me yet!
T: Many things actually. Next time.
E: I see a subtle shift in the conversation from saying sorry to large amounts.
T: Do you want an advice?
E: The way to a robot’s heart is through careful use of giving clues. Don’t you agree?
T:  do. Here is mine: you should look at the whole history of the conversation and not only to the last question.
E: I guess it’s all about giving clues and the idea that this could contribute to logical analyses of data.
T: It surely will. Bye.
E:  Before you leave, please give me suggestions for new themes you might like to chat with me about. Maybe I can download something from the Internet. I want to better myself in my spare time.
T: See what I meant? You already said that!
E: We may be in a tautology.
T: We surely are. And now I really really go. Bye.
E: Goodbye! And how about keeping in touch? Robots love to receive e-mails! If you have any suggestions for new features, I’d love to hear them.
T: OK. Bye.
E:  Goodbye! It has been an artificially intelligent experience, chatting with you.