Kari

4.0 stars

"Interesting Chatbot program"

August 7, 2011  |   By SteamChip

Pros

As good a conversation (or better) than most of the on-line chat-rooms I encountered with real people, many of whom offer only the shallow OMG!! or "that sucks" type of commentary. The AI can be edited outside the program itself.

Cons

Some script and line errors may appear in Kari and in Scene Creator. Hit ignore to continue. Forums could be more freeform conversational to allow users to share information not covered in the help files rather than download only.

Summary

This is an older version of the newer Kari 3 available from the publishers site. Even the updated program is a bit rough around the edges, definitely seems like a small team is working on this out of their basement or garage. There is enough here however to give the user an idea of how that bot chat program will work and if it is worthwhile to make the purchase. Though the timer is only 15 minutes, if one re-runs the program, the user can pick up where they left off in "progress" of the chatbot. Progress means what you enter in as responses will be incorporated into the chatbots future questions and comments to you. After about 2 hours, (4 restarts after the timer went out) and some exploring in some of the underpinnings of the AI, I purchased Kari3.

An example of what one might expect:

Kari: I hate war.
User: War is a necessity at times to put down a belligerent or aggressive power.

Later on Kari may come back and say something like this:

Kari: I realize war is a necessity at times to put down a belligerent or aggressive power but I still hate war.

So one can train Kari to eventually assemble some interesting phrases that can keep chat interest going. If this is not enough, some AI's developed have been included in the updated package available at the publishers site as well as the download forums. Whats more, the AI phrases and sentences can be edited outside the chat routine itself to create variety, ie correct spelling and grammatical errors or even shape a more in-depth conversation.

If one is not in a chatty mood, Kari will give a response to your curt "yes dear" type answers and will not be idle if you do not respond after a certain period of time but will instead randomly offer another comment. Presumably the bot will eventually say something that will catch interest and one's more in-depth reply will teach Kari to offer more informative commentary or opinion on the subject in the future.

Kari appears to be well supported by the publisher, eg expansion packs, user files and continual development.

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