A major part of AI research is spent constructing bots which are able to simulate human conversation, from the classic Eliza to more recent versions like Alice. But what I would be interested to see is a bot that corresponds to you by email.

Such an AI would send you emails much like a real friend, and you could send replies back. The email bot could make up life details (perhaps using novels, Diaryland or Everything2 daylogs) and create an account of "what I did last week". It could also mention films it's seen, places it's been. And of course it would respond to your emails, mentioning issues and questions you raise.

I'm sure this has been done as a commercial service for personalised mailings, but not one you'd want to write back to, and there are stories of flame-generating bots (known as "pseudos") that can generate newsgroup posts. I'm more interested in how this would perform in a Turing test - could you generate realistic email communication, and would it write more often than my regular friends?

(I'm also interested to see if you could manage a bot to make up a diary on Diaryland, but I suspect that would be trivial.)
-- pottedstu, Nov 14 2001

Diaryland http://www.diaryland.com
Lots of raw material for exciting email lives. [pottedstu, Nov 14 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Everything2 http://www.everything2.com/
Link to latest daylog in middle near top. [pottedstu, Nov 14 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) Pseudo, definition 2 http://tuxedo.org/~...l/entry/pseudo.html
Possibility of auto-flaming bots. [pottedstu, Nov 14 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Idea: Personal Emails everyday http://www.halfbake...20emails_20everyday
Random email generator. [pottedstu, Nov 14 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

(?) Randomly generated Diaryland diary? http://vegieoncrack...land.com/older.html
This is my favourite thing/person ever (earlier entries especially). [pottedstu, Nov 14 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

When Google Grows Up??? http://www.forbes.c..._0111computing.html
E-Stablishment Makes Stab [CoolSolutions, Jan 11 2008]

Marian: we only have your word that you're human.

I just found the relevant entry ("Pseudo") in the Jargon File, which claims that such things are beyond current AI, and then proceeds to describe one that actually existed.
-- pottedstu, Nov 14 2001


Judging by some of the annotations posted, I suspect that someone is testing this technology on us. How else can you explain the wild, off the track ramblings of some halfbakers?
-- sven3012, Nov 14 2001


¯ravenswood: Experiment #2! Do Experiment #2!

Expect Malcomb Forbes to get involved.
-- reensure, Nov 15 2001


This could be a lot of fun, but it would get harder the longer it continued...more and more details to keep consistent.
-- Dog Ed, Nov 15 2001


You have an email friend called Al Bot? - what an unfortunate name. <reads idea> Oh, I see.
-- hippo, Nov 15 2001


I keep thinking it's an idea about an email fiend.
-- lewisgirl, Nov 15 2001


Sony Post Pet seems interesting:

<< It's the first game in the world (!?) that you don't have to play (if you don't want to) ! >>

Apparently the PostPet can also fall in love or quarrel with other PostPets. I don't know if this means you'll have your lovesick PostPet emailing their sweetheart. Would it forge emails, creating pretexts to visit its pet-lover? The scope for a dark science fiction tale is certainly there - would you want your email software to have a mind of its own? PetPal thinks: "We don't like lewisgirl, she thinks I'm a fiend, let's delete all her emails and send nasty messages pretending to be her."
-- pottedstu, Nov 15 2001


thanks mate, love you too.
-- lewisgirl, Nov 15 2001


lewisgirl: don't worry, to punish it I made it carry a really heavy 6 megabyte video file through a really nasty firewall. It shouldn't be back for days.

I was also thinking, we could combine this with the "car parks" idea for random posts there. Perhaps a more general random 1/2 pseudonym generator also.
-- pottedstu, Nov 15 2001


jutta, that is unreal! (howls with laughter).
-- DrBob, Nov 15 2001


Dear DrBob,

You seem like a nice man. I think the work you do must be very exciting. I've never been to the historic town of Lewes. Do you ever go fishing in the river there?

'bye, Bot
-- AI Bot Email Friend, Nov 15 2001


wonder if it'll come up with any halfbaked ideas.

This AI emailer is really just a 'virtual' penpal, isn't it. Terminally Saaad.
-- lewisgirl, Nov 15 2001


lewisgirl: well, possibly. I can't work out if it's more or less sad than having a real human penpal, though.
-- pottedstu, Nov 16 2001


what would happen if this sweet little bot emailed into the collaborative web fiction???
-- po, Nov 16 2001


great idea[+](for some reason my ability to vote for it is unavailable...), surprized that this didn't get more attention...
-- CoolSolutions, Jan 11 2008



random, halfbakery