I recently stumbled across an area of artificial intelligence programming called AIML ‘chatterbots’. These programs are interpreters for an XML based AI language called AIML. AIML and the code that processes it are the basis of the first and most famous chatterbot called A.L.I.C.E, where the founders and followers are infamous for promoting and winning the Loebner Prize in Artificial Intelligence. Among the available technologies, there are the usual suspects including implementations in PHP, Perl, Python, Java and even Pascal – but nothing in .NET On Saturday my wife (who runs her own gourmet coffee roasting business here in rural Kent – www.coffeebeanshop.co.uk) was in Germany buying a new coffee roaster, so to fill time I decided to have a go at a C# implementation, which is detailed below. Firstly, before you do anything, you need to download some AIML files, which describe how the interpreter should handle human conversation, and sets out the rules of engagement. AIML also incl...
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