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May 02, 2005

20Q vs. Magic 8-Ball

So, I have one of these 20Q toys that asks you questions and tries to guess what you're thinking... Basically a big neural network of knowledge... Artificial intelligence. But packaged as a toy. It's pretty amazing and does a good job of guessing what you're thinking a lot of the time. Definitely worth getting and playing with... You can play it (or something like it) online, if you want.

But it dawned on me that another form of artificial intelligence has been around for quite a while and hasn't really gotten much of a chance to speak it's mind... so I thought I'd give our Magic 8-Ball an opportunity to express itself, so I used the 20Q to ask questions to the 8-Ball, and in the end... what was the 8-Ball thinking about? Blue Jeans... That's right... the 8-Ball wishes it had legs, and not only that when played again, it was thinking of Monopoly... It probably met Monopoly in the toy store before it had been purchased and wished it could go back and meet it's old friend.

Posted by Andrew at May 2, 2005 05:08 PM

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