23 September 2005


A chat program by the name of George has won the Bronze Medal in the Loebner Prize, an international competition to find the most convincingly human conversationalist.

Created by Rollo Carpenter, a senior developer at a leading UK business software provider, Daybook Ltd, George beat off the challenge from three other finalists. One competitor, Alice, had won on three previous occasions.

George is one of many characters now being created at Jabberwacky.com. Jabberwacky, a learning Artificial Intelligence engine, had competed the previous year, but wasn't so clear as to who or what it was. "You can now create your own bot - your own personality - just by talking. I pretended to be George for a while, and George came to life" said Rollo. .

Held in New York last Sunday, the competition is based on the Turing Test, which suggests that computers could be seen as intelligent if a judge couldn't distinguish machine from human. The competition has been running since 1990, but as yet, no chatbot has completely fooled the judges, so the Gold Medal and a $100,000 prize remains unclaimed.

To win, George and friends had to chat anonymously with four judges - about anything and everything. Four humans, each paired with a program, also talked to the judges, whose job was to score each entity's ‘humanity'.

George's win was the first for an AI which learns from its interactions, a trend that may be setting us on course for a future of apparently-intelligent programs and robots. According to Rollo, "If you chat at Jabberwacky.com today, you'll quite likely find it an odd experience. It hasn't yet learnt enough to handle all language contexts, but you'll hopefully find that there's ‘something there' - something a little more than you expect from a machine."

When not developing world-beating chat programs, Rollo is Daybook's software innovator. He originated the Daybook Enterprise suite, a modular CRM and accounting solution for small and medium businesses, and now leads the development of CalibanWeb.com, a new web-based content management tool that gives you the power to create high quality, high volume web sites in no time.

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Further press information, please contact:
Sarah Pocock/Penny Hinton
The Lean Agency
Sarah - Tel: 07976 863269
Penny - Tel: 07812 989027



About Daybook:

Daybook is a leading provider of software tools and applications for Windows and Apple environments, and of Caliban, a web-based website management and authoring system designed for the non-technical person.

The company's comprehensive suite of applications meets the business needs of SMEs and departmental users. It also produces software tools to help organisations to automate print and web their publishing processes. Complementing these tools, Daybook offers a complete range of support services, from initial consulting and installation through to end-user training and ongoing support.

Part of the Workstation Group of companies, Daybook has particular expertise in the publishing, design and creative industries. Used by more than 100 companies worldwide, the company's clients include BAT, Pentagram Design and the Daily Mail Group.

http://www.daybook.co.uk
http://www.calibanweb.com