This is a transcript of the weird chat that I had last night. I keep going back and forth as to whether this is someone in a different country, or if it is a bot. It responds like a bot to some of the Turing/Botcheck questions, but if it is, it's really sophisticated.
It's pretty obviously not a woman from Kansas.
brandy_ashberry: hello
brandy_ashberry: sorry was on phone
BUZZ!!!
magicmarmot: hang on
brandy_ashberry: k
magicmarmot: Sorry, was playing a game that takes time to unload.
brandy_ashberry: oh k
brandy_ashberry: so what do you do for a living?
magicmarmot: During the day, or at night?
brandy_ashberry: both
brandy_ashberry: i only work during the day
magicmarmot: Day, I write software.
magicmarmot: Night I make movies.
magicmarmot: I work pretty much continually these days.
brandy_ashberry: oh really?
brandy_ashberry: thats a nice job
(Here's where I suspect bot. So, first Turing test.)
magicmarmot: botcheck: blue is color or texture?
brandy_ashberry: texture
magicmarmot: Interesting answer. Why is that?
brandy_ashberry: i just like it
(Surprise. Bots usually fail the check. This one responded, though incorrectly, and that's much more sophisitcated than I was expecting. Suddenly this becomes interesting.)
brandy_ashberry: are you married?...do you have kids?
magicmarmot: Nope, and nope.
magicmarmot: Used to be, but I killed and ate them both.
brandy_ashberry: k
brandy_ashberry: how?
magicmarmot: Really big oven.
magicmarmot: I used to live in the middle of a woods in a house made of gingerbread.
brandy_ashberry: are you serious?
magicmarmot: No, I'm rarely serious.
brandy_ashberry: oh k
(The "oh k" is a pretty consistent signature, as is 'k'. Very Eliza-bot behavior.)
magicmarmot: Where are you located?
brandy_ashberry: Kansas...Haiwatha
brandy_ashberry: and you?
magicmarmot: Minneapolis. Not Kansas.
brandy_ashberry: i mean ii myself is from Ks
magicmarmot: Yes. I am not from Kansas.
magicmarmot: I know there's a Minneapolis Kansas.
brandy_ashberry: ok
magicmarmot: Which is confusing
magicmarmot: but so is cornstarch.
brandy_ashberry: oh k
(See what I mean?
At this point, I am out to try and break the bot to see how it responds to odd structures and nonsense.)
brandy_ashberry: where are you from
brandy_ashberry: ?
magicmarmot: According to the book, Mars.
brandy_ashberry: where in Mars ?
magicmarmot: Just outside of Utopia Planaria.
magicmarmot: It's a small place, very cold.
magicmarmot: No trees.
brandy_ashberry: hmm
brandy_ashberry: so your not from the US right?
(No indeed, Mars is not in the US. Also notice "hmm" as another Eliza-signature.)
magicmarmot: No, I'm from the US left.
magicmarmot: Or more precisely, up.
magicmarmot: Near Canada.
brandy_ashberry: oh k
brandy_ashberry: so what currency of money do you spend?
brandy_ashberry: pounds or dollars?
magicmarmot: Generally dollars, though pounds on occasion.
magicmarmot: They exchange profusely.
(Time for another Turing test.)
magicmarmot: How many feet do you have?
brandy_ashberry: i am 5'7 feet tall and you
(Takes me off guard. That's a structure parsing error. It got the context wrong, but it analyzed the structure of the sentence, and not just keywords.)
magicmarmot: About 20 cm, nose to tail.
magicmarmot: I'm covered with a very soft, fine fur.
brandy_ashberry: thats cool
(Okay, a real person would probably be able to figure out that I wasn't actually a rodent.)
brandy_ashberry: do you have a cam?
magicmarmot: Yes. And it's on.
magicmarmot: Do you?
brandy_ashberry: oh k can you invite me
brandy_ashberry: no i have no cam but i have more pics ok
magicmarmot: I can, if you have a cam too.
magicmarmot: More pics? sure.
brandy_ashberry: yes i have more pics
brandy_ashberry: but i would like to see you on cam ok
magicmarmot: Yes, hang on...
(at this point, I set up my webcam to show this)
brandy_ashberry: ok
brandy_ashberry: thx
brandy_ashberry: can i see your face?
magicmarmot: did you?
brandy_ashberry: send pics
magicmarmot: Of what?
brandy_ashberry: i wanna send you my pics
(Again, structure analysis. Assumed subject. Another notch up the scale.)
magicmarmot: Okay. Do you have a link?
brandy_ashberry: no
magicmarmot: Then how will you send them?
brandy_ashberry: i will send the through a file ok
magicmarmot: Sure.
brandy_ashberry: k
(Turing test, yet again.)
magicmarmot: If you had a cattle prod, what would you prod with it?
brandy_ashberry: dont understand you
magicmarmot: Of course not.
magicmarmot: That's part of the fun.
(Okay, this one failed. "Prod" is a good word that can be either a noun or a verb, and in this sentence is both depending on the instance. It's good for confusing linguistic parsers. Here the failure indicates to me that it's a machine.)
magicmarmot: Ever hear of Alan Turing?
brandy_ashberry: oh yes i do like
(Yeah, the Alan Turing Project.)
brandy_ashberry: yea
magicmarmot: Or a lady named Eliza?
brandy_ashberry: yes i know her
(Snicker.)
magicmarmot: She has really big feet.
brandy_ashberry: yea
magicmarmot: And they smell sort of like cheese and Fritos.
(No response. Since it wasn't a question, it doesn't respond, likely until a timeout.)
magicmarmot: Are you going to send those pics of you?
brandy_ashberry: yes i wil
brandy_ashberry: whats your email address
brandy_ashberry: i think i can send it there
(Um, no.)
magicmarmot: Can't you get it from my profile?
brandy_ashberry: no i cant
magicmarmot: Oh.
brandy_ashberry: i want to send you mine not yours ok
magicmarmot: Sure.
brandy_ashberry: ok
(Okay, let's mangle the e-mail address so a bot can't harvest it.)
magicmarmot: magicmarmotstudios@yahoo.com.removethisl
brandy_ashberry: which of it
brandy_ashberry: i need one ]
(A typo? From a bot? Perhaps we have switched over to a human here? Or maybe a bug?)
magicmarmot: one what?
brandy_ashberry: to send you the pics
magicmarmot: Send them to my e-mail address.
brandy_ashberry: which is your personal email address?
magicmarmot: magicmarmotstudios@yahoo.com.removethisl
brandy_ashberry: oh k
magicmarmot: You know that you have to remove that last part, right?
brandy_ashberry: i dont understand
(Haven't we seen "i dont understand" before?
Time for another Turing test.)
magicmarmot: Finish this pattern: 1, 2, 3, 4,
brandy_ashberry: k
(Yep. Signature.)
brandy_ashberry: did you get my file?
(the files come. I check them with the antivirus software, and they are clean.)
You have received 1 photo from brandy_ashberry.
1.jpg
magicmarmot: I'm receiving them now.
You have received 1 photo from brandy_ashberry.
1111.jpg
(These are pretty obviously taken with a webcam. Low angle, crappy contrast, 320 x 240 size.)
magicmarmot: Hang on.
brandy_ashberry: oh k thx
magicmarmot: http://www.primalvisions.com/junk/prosthetics/dogpros01.jpg
brandy_ashberry: whats that for
magicmarmot: Just a neat image I thought you'd like.
brandy_ashberry: hmm i would check
magicmarmot: How much wood would a would check check if a would check could check wood?
brandy_ashberry: 3 would
magicmarmot: Good answer.
(Okay, unintentional Turing test there. Ask it a question and it answers, but it actually parsed the subjective verb properly. That's good stuff, Maynard.)
magicmarmot: I thought you said you didn't have a webcam?
brandy_ashberry: i dont have one
brandy_ashberry: i just answered your question
magicmarmot: But those pictures were taken with a webcam.
brandy_ashberry: no a digital camera
magicmarmot: No, but if you hum a few bars I can fake it.
brandy_ashberry: hmm
magicmarmot: Oooh, good one.
("hmm" is another signature, but in the context of the joke, it's pretty funny.)
brandy_ashberry: so can i see you on cam now
magicmarmot: Didn't you see me earlier?
brandy_ashberry: i didn't
(I turn the webcam back on.)
brandy_ashberry: i can only see the screen of your computer
(about now I think maybe there is some face recognition software running, so I try this.)
magicmarmot: See me now?
brandy_ashberry: i want to see your face
brandy_ashberry: thats a tteddy bear face...i can see you holding it
(You can see me holding it? And yet another typo?)
magicmarmot: how about that?
brandy_ashberry: thats not your face
brandy_ashberry: i am wish ok
brandy_ashberry: i am not a kid
magicmarmot: wish ok?
brandy_ashberry: your face
brandy_ashberry: byeeeeee
magicmarmot: see?
brandy_ashberry: byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
magicmarmot: Bye.
brandy_ashberry has stopped viewing your webcam.
There were some long pauses in there.
I suspect that this is a hybrid, a bot that handles some of the interaction but kicks back to a human user when it can't handle some things. That whole last section seems like a human, like a frustrated hacker who doesn't speak english.
It was just... odd.
At least it didn't want to play Global Thermonuclear War.