Are there any tips & tricks available how to make a good chatterbot?
Sure! Read the story of Thom Whalen who has won the Loebner contest with his chatterbot TIPS in 1994 and why he lost in 1995. In his article “computational behaviourism applied to natural language” he explains the principle of his chatterbots. Talk to TIPS yourself at or download a demo version for DOS. Jason Hutchens, who has won the Loebner contest in 1996, has written a paper called “How to Pass the Turing Test by Cheating” which is available for download. An introduction, how HeX works including several very good tips, you can find at his homepage Robby Garner, who has won the Loebner contest in 1998 and 1999, has documented the evolution of his winning chatterbot FRED. The text tells you a lot how an excellent chatterbot is working. Michael L. Mauldin from Center for Machine Translation has published an article: “Chatterbots, Tinymuds, And The Turing Test: Entering The Loebner Prize Competition”. In chapter 4: “Strategies for Conversational Programs: “Tricks”” the article include
