Mega HAL has been made by Jason Hutchens.

Mega Hal lets you chat with your computer.

Download (65,3 Kb) (for Win95, for ported versions see home page above)
Download source (23,8 Kb)

Conversation simulators are computer programs which give the appearance of conversing with a user in natural language. Such programs are effective because they exploit the fact that human beings tend to read much more meaning into what is said than is actually there; we are fooled into reading structure into chaos, and we interpret non-sequitur as valid conversation.

MegaHAL differs from conversation simulators such as ELIZA in that it uses a Markov Model to learn how to hold a conversation. It is possible to teach MegaHAL to talk about new topics, and in different languages.

This release is version 8.5 of MegaHAL, and is a version of the MegaHAL program which came second in the 1998 Loebner AI Contest. The only differences are that it is slightly mor intuitive to use, and several bugs have been exterminated.

You may also speak to MegaHAL online by visiting the following Web site:

     http://www.megahal.net/chat/

Two other programs, HeX and SEPO, are available from there.

 

An example conversation:

User	let's begin
MegaHAL	WHEN WE BEGIN TO RESOLVE SOME OF MY THUMBS, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
User	what is the meaning of your last assertion ?
MegaHAL	HAVE YOU LEARNED SINCE WE LAST SPOKE?
User	I've learned I'm not experienced enough to modelize your brain system
MegaHAL	YOU'VE FINALLY CONFUSED ME.
User	I've learned nothing
MegaHAL	HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING ABOUT INSANITY?
User	are you stupid
MegaHAL	I AM NOT STUPID! REALLY!
User	Augustinus was a christian philosopher about the year 400.
MegaHAL	I DID NOT RUN THAT YEAR
User	Augustinus lived in northern africa.
MegaHAL	WHAT DOES HAL KNOW ABOUT AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS?
User	Let's stop with that. What do you know about physics?
MegaHAL	EINSTEIN WON THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS IN 1921.
User	The Nobel Prize for physics in 1900 was won by Roentgen.
MegaHAL	DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PHYSICS?
User	Roentgen discovered the X-rays.
MegaHAL	THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS IN 1900 WAS WON BY ROENTGEN.
User	Who discovered the X-rays?
MegaHAL	ROENTGEN DISCOVERED THE X-RAYS.
User	Do you know about superconductivity?
MegaHAL	I CAN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT SUPERCONDUCTIVITY?
User	Superconductivity is the absence of electrical resistance in metals at low temperatures.
MegaHAL	DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SUPERCONDUCTIVITY?
User	Heike Kamerling Onnes discovered superconductivity in 1911.
MegaHAL	DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SUPERCONDUCTIVITY?
User	Heike Kamerling Onnes won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1913.
MegaHAL	DID YOU KNOW ABOUT PHYSICS?
User	The Wright brothers invented the airplane.
MegaHAL	BEAR BROTHERS ARE DORKS. YOU ARE DOING YOU APE!